Here are my observations and opinions on witnessing the Democrats’ conversion to believers in the founding fathers and the Constitution.
I WAS TIRING OF NANCY PELOSI’S sudden appreciation for our democracy and the Constitution, and was preparing to write about it when I spotted the op-ed, “Democrats Rediscover Constitution,” in the Wall Street Journal written by Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.
With President Trump’s impeachment on her mind, she has frequently made reference to patriotism, our founders, our democracy and the Constitution, quoting Madison and Franklin liberally. This is in addition to her references to her “sober” and “prayerful’ consideration for her “grave” decisions.
Last Thursday, she quick-stepped her way to the lectern wearing her symbolic “women’s suffrage” white suit to announce her intention to proceed with the impeachment of the president.
“Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders, and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment,” she said. “His wrongdoing strikes at the very heart of our Constitution. Our democracy is what is at stake.”
On Monday, now adorned in a glorious bright purple suit, Pelosi returned to the lectern on a “solemn day,” flanked by her chairmen to again cast her decision “as a heavy-hearted, but necessary one, to preserve American democracy,” citing the vision of the Constitution’s framers.”
Over the period covering the House Intelligence and House Judiciary hearings, Representatives Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, and their members constantly referred to the importance of adhering to our Constitution. The law scholars they invited to be interviewed, and their committee counsel, too, continually referred to the Constitution and the intent of the founding fathers.
“He (Trump) endangers the Constitution, he endangers our democracy, and he endangers our national security,” said Nadler during Monday’s announcement of the articles of impeachment.
Democrats have been notorious decenters of the Constitution, viewing it as a “living” document that can evolve over time, as opposed to the “originalist” or “textualist” view of upholding the Constitution’s original meaning.
“One satisfying feature of the impeachment drama is the outbreak among Democrats for the Constitution,” wrote Lipsky. “What a refreshing change from years past, when every time a conservative raised a constitutional point, the liberals would roll their eyes. The left seemed to detest the Constitution and the white male nationalists who wrote it.”
That was so evident during the confirmation hearings for Justices Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, when Senators Dianne Feinstein, Dick Durbin and Amy Klobuchar challenged their “originalist” views.
Gorsuch humorously tried to assure Klobuchar that he was “not looking to take us back to quill pens and horse and buggies.”
“It’s ironic,” wrote Lipsky, “liberals, after all, had won some of their greatest causes by wielding the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. School desegregation, free speech, restrictions on public prayer, the right to abortion – these are among the liberal causes won by wrestling on the bedrock of the American constitution.”
The leftist blog, Salon, headlines a piece, “Let’s stop pretending the Constitution is sacred,” Lipsky noted.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ (nytimes.com)
Law professor Alan Dershowitz, a Democrat, appearing on “Life, Liberty & Levin” over the weekend, said, “If impeachment turns on the fact that the Democrats now have a majority in the House, but not in the Senate, that would be a complete abuse of what the framers had in mind.
Supporting my contention, and Lipsky’s too, Dershowitz declared:
“It goes without saying that Democrats couldn’t care less what the framers had in mind. They hate the framers. They despise them. They were ‘slaveholders, ‘racists,’ ‘white men.’’
Dershowitz offered a literal reading of Alexander Hamilton’s quote from Federalist Paper No. 65, commenting that it is often misquoted: “There will always be the greatest danger that the decision (to impeach) will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstration of innocence or guilt.”
More to come. Be despondent with the Democrats, if you will, but not over the future of the Republican party and the continued successes of the Trump administration.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
