The Republicans wanted to read the Constitution into the congressional record on the first full day of the new session. It is just more political theatre and another example that style and image will always triumph over substance and hard work. It was also a brilliant move on their part because they knew how the Democrats would react; negative and small.
That is just how the Democrats acted. They rose to object and asked petty and small minded questions they tried to score political points with a small segment of their base by trying to mock this exercise. And, what happened; they played right into the hands of the media and the Republican apologists on talk radio and cable news. The headline was House Democrats Oppose Reading of the Constitution. This event would have gone largely unnoticed but except for the clumsy Democrats.
The Democrats should have just gone along with it. They should have joined in without comment. They should have stood in line to join the reading in a spirit of bi-partisanship. The Republicans were trying to prove they were more patriotic then the Democrats and the Democrats allowed them to do just that.
Everyone knew this was just more grandstanding and a really meaningless act and by trying to object the House Democrats further tarnished the perfectly honorable word of Liberal. Now the right wing in this country can point out that it was the Democrat Party who mocked and tried to diminish the importance of the greatest of all political documents. This is the document that that has held this great republic together since 1789. This is the document that a great civil war was fought over. This is the document that all who serves in the armed forces and hold public office pledge to defend. This is the document the Democratic Party objected to reading and being entered into the congressional record. If the party leaders are not embarrassed by this they should be, because this Democrat surely is.
Reconnecting with the founding document is one thing. Bowdlerizing it is quite another. And that's what they did.
ReplyDeleteI think the 3/5 compromise is an important part. It shows that the Framers were wrong about some important things, and that if we were still using the document as they wrote it, unamended, this country would be a total disaster. But that's not the message Republicans were trying to deliver to their base, so it got left out.
Jon
ReplyDeleteI agree. But, let's save the efforts for something that we can win and will make us look good and improve peoples lives. This was just a waste of time and further added to the image that they love this country more than we do. They have has some surrogates do all the talking. Liberal pundits should have been assigned the task not members of congress. dcf