Posted on 08/26/2015 5:36:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When is it outrageous to amend the Constitution?
Donald Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, wants to overturn the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. Whether out of panic or sincerity, a number of other Republican candidates have joined the bandwagon. This is probably good politics for the GOP nomination and almost certainly bad politics for the general election. I am inclined against the idea as a matter of public policy, because the costs would outweigh the benefits. But I am far from convinced it is something to be outraged about.
It’s funny: On countless public policy issues, liberals are obsessed with comparing America to European countries. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders routinely points out that Europeans have far more lavish welfare policies, including various forms of government-provided health care. President Obama loves to point to the gun-control policies of other industrialized nations. “Why can’t we just be more like (insert more left-wing European country)?” is the standard-issue rhetorical gimmick for cosmopolitan and sophisticated liberal policy wonks.
Except when it’s not. No European country grants automatic citizenship to any person born on its soil. And yet, we are told that undoing this right would be a barbaric and retrograde reversal.
“It’s pretty gross, and underlying are deeply seeded [sic], basically racist intentions,” Melissa Keaney of the National Immigration Law Center told Business Insider. Are Sweden and France “gross” now, too?
But let’s get back to the Constitution. Whenever Republicans favor amending the Constitution — or overruling a Supreme Court interpretation of it — Democrats unleash a tsunami of mortified rhetoric.
“We should not mess with the Constitution. We should not tamper with the Constitution,” Senator Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) declared in 2000 when Republicans suggested a victims’ rights amendment.
“I respect the wisdom of the Founders to uphold the Constitution, which has served this nation so well for the last 223 years,” Senator Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) thundered in response to a proposed balanced-budget amendment in 2011.
Representative Raúl Grijalva (D., Ariz.) shrieked in protest over the potential repeal of birthright citizenship, “I think it’s horribly dangerous to open up the Constitution, to tamper with the Constitution.”
Now bear in mind, all of these Democrats oppose justices who believe the Constitution should be read narrowly, according to the original intent or plain meaning of the text. They like justices who worship at the altar of the “living Constitution” — you know, the mythical document that magically provides rights never imagined by the Founding Fathers.
Meanwhile, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, announced that one of her four central goals is to change the First Amendment. She wants to do this on the grounds that we must do anything we can to get rid of “unaccountable money” in our political system.
Never mind that this is a funny position for a woman who plans on raising a reported $2 billion to win the presidency and whose foundation — which is neatly aligned with her political ambitions — is awash in foreign money. If only she hadn’t scrubbed her illicit private email server, I’m sure she could allay any fears that she is tainted by unaccountable money.
And yet, where is the outrage?
It isn’t coming from activist groups like People for the American Way, an organization founded to uphold the First Amendment. It has denounced the Republican effort to tinker with the 14th Amendment as an affront to human decency, but it applauds Clinton’s desire to tamper with the First Amendment as proof of her commitment to democracy.
Some Republicans disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which applied the 14th Amendment to immigrants born here. Some Democrats disagree with the court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which says the First Amendment applies to groups of citizens acting in concert. Both, or neither, may be right, but only Republicans are forbidden from acting on their conviction.
Whenever a Republican is asked about potential court appointments, he must swear that he will offer no “litmus tests,” specifically on abortion. But Democrats routinely vow that they will only appoint living constitutionalists who see a right to abortion-on-demand lurking between the lines of the Bill of Rights. Clinton recently added a new litmus test. She’s told donors — accountable ones, no doubt — that she would only appoint justices who would overturn the Citizens United decision.
Don’t strain yourself trying to hear the outrage. Outrage is saved for Republicans.
— Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review.
Liberals don’t bother changing the Constitution. They ignore it.
overturn the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship
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No such citizenship to “overturn”. Constitutional amendments are years long processes.
Bfl
No mention of the Liberal “War on the 2nd”tm? Shameful.
While they’re at it, conservative candidates ought to be touting the value of applying Mexico’s own immigration policies to those crossing the border into the US. After all, fair is fair, right?
Liberals hate the Constitution; but don’t you dare mess with the only constitution the care about — the 14th Amendment. They’ve been governing by a figment, a parody, of the 14th Amendment, and that alone, for 50 years.
The 14th Amendment needs no change. The term “under the jurisdiction of U.S.” excludes foreigners, aliens and foreign diplomats because they are under the jurisdiction (actually allegiance) of their home country. There has never been a test case on this specific language and I guess it must happen to shut up people who misunderstand. In what Universe would any country allow anyone within its borders illegally or on vacation, etc. to acquire citizenship and mucho benefits by the mere fact of being here?
It’s not even limited to immigration. Try mirroring Mexico on their VOTING laws and watch the fireworks.
The ONLY time the Left wishes to adhere to the Constitution is when the Courts have perverted the language to turn their war-du-jour-phrase 180 degrees.
Funny how ‘...shall not be infringed’ is never read correctly, or ‘Congress shall not make’; but *somehow* the interstate commerce CLAUSE negates the whole of the Constitution’s premise.
There is nothing wrong with amending the Constitution, liberal or conservative. You just follow the instructions on the back of the constitutional cereal box, get the backing needed from Americans, and voila...amendments get passed.
We only wish the liberals had the guts to try it, which they don’t.
I think Phyllis Schlafly slaughtered their liberal will to live when they tried to follow the rules and pass the Equal Rights Amendment, and she single-handedly made millions of them look like the ignorant dolts they are.
They gave up after that, and now try to make their will the law by skirting every obstacle thrown up by The Constitution.
Damn them.
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