Know your Constitution: A tea party test for GOP field in South Carolina

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Washington Post

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican candidates for president gathered here Monday afternoon for an unusual forum that explored their views of the U.S. Constitution and how they believe the government has strayed from it.

The forum, hosted by a tea party favorite, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), reflected how much the tea party movement — which helped fuel last year’s historic Republican gains in Congress with a refocus on the nation’s limited-government origins — continues to exert itself in the run-up to next year’s presidential election.
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Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney called for the repeal of a raft of federal legislation that he believes overstepped the government’s authority, from the health-care overhaul to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), when asked what federal programs he would eliminate, retorted: “I’d rather give you a list of the things we should keep” because the list would be shorter. And Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), in an implicit dig at Romney, declared that even a state-level health-care law containing an individual insurance mandate would lie afoul of the Constitution.
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And even as he sought to prove his bona fides with tea party supporters, Romney seized a few moments to tack to the middle, making the point that the GOP should not try to be the party against all regulations — and rejecting a suggestion that the president should get around the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide by simply passing a new law giving authority to the states.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/know-your-constitution-a-tea-party-test-for-gop-field-in-south-carolina/2011/09/05/gIQAaxW14J_story.html

[bongbong]

1. Failed

Most of the GOP got questions on the Constitution wrong, but they all scored 100% on the teabagger "Do You Hate America?" test.

[cstanleytech]

2. Lets see how many nicknames names we can come up with for the kind of country they propose

The United States of Anarchy
The Wild, Wild US of A

All joking aside, I hope none of these idiots win because if they do my prediction is they will end up making the 1920s and 30s look down right pleasant.

[Zorro]

4. If any of those idiots win

I'm movin' to Iraq.

[Indianademocrat91]

3. The US Constitution was made by those Socialist European Terrorists

The Real Constitution was made after Jesus died. GOPers are the only ones who know the truth... :banghead:

[No Elephants]

5. First, Republicans gave us fuzzy math. Now, it's fuzzy Constitution.

Bless their tiny fuzzy hearts.

[ScottLand]

6. I'd love to see them show their Constitution knowledge in

a gameshow-like contest. Might not even have a winner.

Consider this - if it's unconstitutional to require citizens to buy healthcare, how is it constitutional to require them to pay into medicare?

[rasputin1952]

7. I've spoken to Teabaggers about The Constitution...

Most have never read it, don't know the First Ten Amendments were introduced to protect citizens from the government, (and the initial list presented was 12 Amendments, that really throws them for a loop).

Quite a few don't understand the difference between the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution and confuse them on a pretty consistent basis.

Worst of all, while most actually know the document begins with, "We the People...", there is a complete dissociation with what that means. The fact that "People" starts with a capital "P" states volumes. The document had to be ratified by the states before becoming the supreme law of the land; laying the document out to the people to see if it was viable.

Decisions made by the USSC have made this a "living document" as well as the Amendments, the genius is in it's ability to be flexible as time, technology and knowledge requires.


I don't think the current crop of GOP candidates has the faintest idea of what they are talking about; something that becomes more glaring with each "meeting" they have that brings up The Constitution.

[w0nderer]

8. k&r n/t