What's with conservatives' fetish for the Founding Fathers?

Salon ^ | 5/11/10 | Gabriel Winant

[pissant]

It's pretty revealing that, when casting about for a plan to oppose Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, the Republican National Committee decided to accuse her of not loving the Constitution enough. The item that the RNC thought was so dynamite? Kagan had quoted her mentor, Justice Thurgood Marshall, on the subject of the "defective" Constitution -- that is, the document that allowed slavery, denied women the vote, etc.

Alex Pareene already took the RNC to the woodshed yesterday over this ridiculous argument. (Even in backtracking, the RNC seemed to dismiss, or not know about, Marshall's crucial role in overturning segregation, as lawyer for the NAACP.)

But this is just the latest in a long line of incidents in weird fetishism for the Constitution on the right. Just yesterday, the National Organization for Marriage put out a weird statement about our "beloved Constitution" -- as if it's the family golden retriever.

But that's not the half of it. Back in February, a number of prominent conservatives got together in Mount Vernon, Va., near George Washington's old estate, to release the "Mount Vernon Statement." Mainly, it was pablum like this: "We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law." Still, you can't miss the strain of historical fantasy.

[pissant]

Hey A**hole, it's our attempt to counter the fetish liberals have for Uncle Karl.

[RC2]

They can’t accept the fact that the Founding Fathers were a lot more intelligent than they are. Just read some of the Founding Fathers papers and you will see how dumb the liberals really are.

[rhombus]

A classic throw out the baby with the bathwater argument. I wonder if this writer has a fetish for that silly old first amendment. If not, throw his traitorous butt in jail for what he wrote. I wonder if he’d then find a new respect for that Constitution or at the very least, a few of its amendments.

[EagleUSA]

Just another media leftist loser trying to make points with the anti-American clan. If he had to get an honest job, he would end up homeless and hungry.

[darkangel82]

My cat and dog go to the bathroom on “articles” like this. Nonsense, braindead, worthless junk that came straight from the dump of liberal communism.

[cripplecreek]

the document that allowed slavery, denied women the vote, etc.

Actually the constitution did neither of those things. Interpretation of them through the lens of the day would be the culprit.

[kittymyrib]

How about Salon’s fettish for gays and lesbians?

[SnakeDoctor]

What’s with the liberal fetish for using sexualized epithets to refer to conservatives ... fetish, “teabagger”, etc.?

Good grief.

SnakeDoc

[Bitsy]

it’s our attempt to counter the fetish liberals have for Uncle Karl.
And, they are Americas foundation and a they were ahellofalot smarter then the morons we have in government today. Had we stuck to their values, morals and principles, we wouldn’t be in the liberal, leftist cesspool we are in today.

[NativeNewYorker]

[mojito]

The left hates the Constitution because it stand so solidly in the way of their leftist utopian crypto-commie schemes.

Hence, their need to denigrate it at every opportunity, using the same tired tropes with which they propagate their warped view of the world (slavery, racism, sexism, etc.)

[avacado]

But this is just the latest in a long line of incidents in weird fetishism for the Constitution on the right.

Well, the US Constitution sure beats the liberals' beloved books.

[Spok]

I dunno-a desperate longing for national leaders who are honest and competent? Ya think?

[Genoa]

Man--"What do we have, Dr. Franklin, a kingdom or a republic?"
Franklin--"A republic, if you can keep it."

[pissant]

Not to mention they HATE everything the founders weaved together in creating America: a constitutional republic as opposed to a ‘democracy’, limited, proscribed powers of the federal government, honor, God, morals, self reliance, etc, etc.

[DJ MacWoW]

I noticed that too which means the guy who wrote this article has never actually read the Constitution.

[American Constitutionalist]

Ahh yesss, typical Liberals trying to take us away from our countries founding principles ....

[Sans-Culotte]

This guy has come up with the most idiotic and inaccurate description of the constitution I have ever read.

[Apparatchik]

This is a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives. As unfathomable as it is to conservatives, references to the Founding Fathers and the basic principles that the Republic was founded on are completely uninteresting and irrelevant to liberals. This is a basic point that must be understood when arguing with the Left. The socialists simply do not care about platitudes about liberty and equality in the eyes of the law, about limited government as a sometimes necessary evil. They do not take any of these principles into account and often see them as getting the way of their agenda to fundamentally re-make America in their own vision, not that of those who founded this nation - they are dead and gone.

Scary, but true, and we have to contend with this.

[Josh Painter]

1963 Communist Goals

#29 - Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

#30 - Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man”.

http://archive.glennbeck.com/news/03212002.shtml