The Patriot Post® · In Age of Trump, Leftists Rediscover Constitution
It’s nothing short of amazing to witness how the progressive Left has suddenly rediscovered a “love” for the Constitution now that they’ve lost the White House. For decades, leftist Democrats have shown utter contempt for our Founding Documents — a contempt that became gleeful frenzy in support of Barack Obama’s all-too-frequent usurpations.
In 2012, progressive icon Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in an interview on Egyptian television, declared, “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.” Obama, of course, famously called the Constitution “deeply flawed,” and in his farewell address dismissed it as “just a piece of parchment” — without life supplied by progressive dreams, his implication was.
Rejecting constitutional limits on his power, Obama repeatedly rewrote the disastrous ObamaCare law by executive fiat, issuing waivers to the politically connected, extending deadlines, subsidizing payments, etc. He launched a war against Libya without congressional authorization, and he gutted the work requirement for welfare benefits. He violated decades-old bankruptcy law to pay off labor unions before secured creditors in the auto bailout, he spied on the press, and engaged in illegally collecting the digital communications of every American. Even this just scratches the surface.
This week, as Senate Democrats attempted to smear and defame their colleague and attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions, it was Sen. Ted Cruz who exposed the blatant hypocrisy of their claims that Sessions would not enforce the law fairly. As Cruz noted, the Senate Democrats who now praise Rule of Law were silent when the Eric Holder Justice Department sold guns to Mexican drug cartels that were then used to murder U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexican citizens. They were silent when Obama allowed the IRS to illegally target and harass conservative non-profits, and when he refused to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate that outrage.
They were silent when Obama instituted Operation Chokepoint to cut off banking services for legal businesses because Obama didn’t like those businesses, and silent as Obama sent millions of dollars to so-called sanctuary cities that stand in the way of enforcing U.S. immigration law. They were silent when he unilaterally rewrote American immigration law, granting de facto amnesty to millions of illegals (and releasing thousands of illegal alien rapists, robbers and murderers onto an unsuspecting population), and they were silent as Obama illegally released terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, and when he paid out a nearly $2 billion ransom to Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
But progressives have discovered respect for constitutional principles and processes in other areas as well.
Democrats under Obama gutted the filibuster and erased the lines of separation of powers, yet now are desperate to restore them to stop Trump from enacting his agenda.
And after spending much of the last decade in a full-scale assault on the freedoms of religion, speech and association — trying to force Catholic nuns to provide abortion-inducing birth control drugs to employees of their charitable order, and prosecuting Christian bakers, florists, photographers, bed-and-breakfast owners and others who decline to provide services for same-sex “weddings” because of sincere religious convictions — leftists suddenly revere the freedom of association, as evidenced by their throaty declarations of refusal to provide services for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania.
Citing their conscientious objections to Trump and his policies, many musicians announced their refusal to perform at his inauguration, including Elton John, opera star Andrea Bocelli (who was reportedly considering it before leftist mobs threatened to boycott him), and Celine Dion. And though the Rockettes have been booked to perform, some of the dancers have publicly expressed their objection to doing so.
Fashion designers have come out to let us all know they refuse to design outfits for the first lady, and artists are even demanding that First Daughter Ivanka Trump remove their paintings from her home and office — paintings that she’s already paid for!
In Washington, DC, which is overwhelmingly Democrat, many homeowners who rent their homes through travel site Airbnb are refusing to rent to Trump supporters coming to town for the inauguration, claiming that to do so would violate their conscience. As one homeowner stated, “I have a visceral reaction to the thought of having a Trump supporter in my house. … No amount of money could make me change my mind. It’s about moral principles.” One wonders if this woman would risk a fine or jail to hold to her principles, since DC’s anti-discrimination law makes it unlawful “to interrupt or terminate, or refuse or fail to initiate or conduct any transaction in real property … based on … political affiliation.”
BuzzFeed, which is under fire this week for publishing a sleazy and utterly uncorroborated hit piece on Trump, last year refused to run political ads for the Trump campaign because they oppose his politics.
Hopefully, the rabidly anti-Christian, anti-Republican, anti-conservative, anti-marriage, pro-abortion progressive hordes will one day acknowledge that the freedoms of religion, speech and association are guaranteed to all Americans, regardless of their political affiliation.
Will the Angry Left finally see the wisdom of the Founders, or will they simply continue to feign respect? To ask is to answer.