It’s mighty kind of the Trump-supporting alt-right movement to finally show us their true colors. They are now declaring constitutionalism dead.
The U.S. Constitution is one of the most brilliant political documents ever written. If other countries had a similar founding document, the world would be significantly better and freer.
Sadly, Trump supporters beg to disagree with that statement. See here the drivel that Laura Ingraham’s website published about conservative activist, blogger, and speaker Ben Shapiro and Senator Ted Cruz:
The Constitution worship of those like Shapiro and Sen. Ted Cruz reveals that the mainstream conservative movement has largely forgotten the principle of imperfectability.
As Shapiro explains at his website, this criticism is so incredibly ridiculous exactly because the Constitution actually assumes that human beings are fallen and, therefore, everything but perfect.
That seems odd, given that the entire basis for the Constitution is man’s imperfectability – hence the needs for checks and balances, the division of power between the states and federal government, and James Madison’s famed prescription in Federalist No. 51:
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
So [the author of the hit piece Edmund] Kozak obviously gets it wrong, because he doesn’t understand the basis of the Constitution.
If the U.S. Constitution understands anything, it is that a) culture matters and b) men are imperfect. This Christian worldview is the basis of the Constitution, and it’s why America’s Founding Fathers opposed an all-powerful government. After all, if mankind is imperfect, that also goes for our political leaders. The more powerful they become, the more obvious their sinful nature will be, which means that powerful governments always end up oppressing their people.
Seriously. Constitution WORSHIP? It’s called being a ‘Constitutionalist,’ which I thought conservatives were https://t.co/4wORKYre7k
— Mike van der Galien (@MichaelvdGalien) August 23, 2016
Unlike Kozak and his Trump-worshiping boss Laura Ingraham, real conservatives understand that the conservative philosophy and the United States Constitution are linked to each other. The one is the expression of the other and they reinforce each other’s values, principles, and foundation.
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