Constitutional Progressives Take Critical Fight to Tea Party [View All]

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September 14, 2011

Constitutional Progressives Take Critical Fight to Tea Party
Post by Sarah Posner

Today, a coalition of progressive groups announced the formation of Constitutional Progressives, an effort to push back against the radical politics of "constitutional conservatives:" the claims, for example, that the Affordable Care Act, or even Social Security, are unconstitutional; that "activist judges" shouldn't decide the constitutionality of legal measures intended to protect the rights of fellow citizens; that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional; that regulation of business is contrary to constitutional principles and "liberty;" and in some extreme cases, that secession may be necessary.

Conservatives are big on touting themselves as "constitutional conservatives," signaling their hostility, in short, to 20th century legislative reforms and jurisprudence and, in some cases, the very purposes of the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution. Ed Kilgore neatly summed up the views of "constitutional conservatives" in a piece about Michele Bachmann's use of the label to describe herself:

(C)onstitutional conservatives think of America as a sort of ruined paradise, bestowed a perfect form of government by its wise Founders but gradually imperiled by the looting impulses of voters and politicians. In their backwards-looking vision, constitutional conservatives like to talk about the inalienable rights conferred by the Founders—not specifically in the Constitution, as a matter of fact, but in the Declaration of Independence, which is frequently and intentionally conflated with the Constitution as the part of the Founders’ design. It’s from the Declaration, for instance, that today’s conservatives derive their belief that “natural rights” (often interpreted to include quasi-absolute property rights or the prerogatives of the traditional family), as well as the “rights of the unborn,” were fundamental to the American political experiment and made immutable by their divine origin.

Constitutional Progressives has produced a blistering video demonstrating how "Constitutional Conservatives love the Constitution – except for the parts they don't:" ...

video at link

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http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/5109/constitutional_progressives_take_critical_fight_to_tea_party/