Republican Stomp-Down, Part I

Thursday, the new Republican Leadership of House of Representatives held a grandstanding dog and pony show in an effort to show that theyare the true defenders of the Constitution -- as opposed to the Democrats who supposedly make up the Constitution as they go along. The reading of the Constitution on the House floor, while certainly amounting to political theater, was a not a bad idea. It's our nation's founding document, and lawmakers should be familiar with it and respect both its text and its history. However, the version of the Constitution which the Leadership chose to be read by a bipartisan group of Representatives fell short of respecting that history. 

The version read was sanitized, with the parts of the original document that have been superseded by later amendments omitted from the reading -- including the notorious "three-fifths compromise."Reading this edited version undermines an important understanding of our laws, our history, our founders and the Constitution itself. However, this is in line with how the radical Right views and discusses the Constitution, conveniently picking and choosing the parts which it deems worthy of defending. 

Ironically, while celebrating the Constitution in one part of the Capitol, two members of the Republican House majority were busy defying it in another. Reps. Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick missed their swearing in ceremony because they were at a fundraiser in the Visitors Center of the Capitol, something which in itself is a violation of House ethics rules. The pair had taken part in House action without being sworn in, an unconstitutional act, including Sessions casting a key vote to move forward on a bill repealing health care reform. 

The events of this week make it very easy to predict what's to come for the 112th Congress. Here are some things to look for: Hypocrisy -- Republicans have been insisting that every bill introduced must include a citation of the constitutional authority under which it can be enacted, but none of the early bills they've filed include those citations. They've continually hyped spending cuts to bring down the deficit but have ignored the budget impact of tax cuts for the super wealthy and repealing health care reform (something the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says alone will add $230 billion to deficit over the next decade). Government for Sale -- This week, Darrell Issa of California, the new chair of the Oversight and Government Affairs committee who has promised to launch a slew politically-motivated witch hunts aimed at crippling the Obama administration and covering up Wall Street's role in the economic crisis. His motives were made clear months ago when he ludicrously declared that the Obama Administration was "the most corrupt in modern history." He has sent letters to 150 business lobby groups asking them to identify which "burdensome government regulations" they'd like to eliminate. Other new committee chairs have hung similar "for sale" signs on their doors, and despite all the hype about the Tea Party being a "populist" and "anti-establishment" movement, newly-elected Tea Party members have hired corporate lobbyists to lead their staffs and are already snatching up as many donations as they can pocket from corporate special interests. None of this corporate subservience is a surprise based on the new House Leadership, the culture of buying elections in the wake of Citizens United v. FEC or the real, not-so-hidden agenda of the people pulling the strings of the Tea Party movement. Attacks on Gays, Muslims and Immigrants -- The conservative movement is in the process of cleansing itself of the less ideologically pure in their ranks, that is, people who don't pass Far Right litmus tests of hating gays, Muslims and immigrants. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual convening of the conservative movement, is being boycotted this year by an ever-growing list of right-wing groups over its inclusion of GOProud, a right-wing LGBT Republican group that supports extremely far-right politicians and holds views much further to the right than the Log Cabin Republicans. The Right's zero-tolerance policy also extends to Muslims, as CPAC's also under attack because its inclusion of the leader of a conservative group called Muslims for America and the chair of the Conservative Inclusion Coalition, who happens to be Muslim. Of course, there have been charges of ties to terrorist groups. 

Also this week, legislators in Arizona and other states announced legislation designed to challenge the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, with hopes that eventually the Supreme Court will be in the position to reinterpret the 14th Amendment. Radical Right U.S. Rep. Steve King introduced a bill on the first day of Congress that would presumably violate the 14th Amendment by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act, ending automatic citizenship for anyone born in the country. And lawmakers in Kentucky have introduced a bill styled after Arizona's infamous SB 1070, the "show me your papers" bill, that is perhaps even more draconian in its approach to persecuting immigrants than the Arizona bill. 

That's just the first week! There will be much more to come... like investigations and attacks on the funding of the Smithsonian and public broadcasting in order to placate the Far Right's hatred of constitutionally-protected free expression. And the usual attacks on reproductive rights, workers' rights consumers and the environment. This is what happens when the Right Wing is in charge. But we know that this radical, overreaching agenda is not what Americans want, and, with your help, we'll be able to fight back in a way that strengthens our voice and reasserts our progressive values. 

Thank you for your ongoing support. 
--Michael Keegan, President 


For further reading: Corporate Infusion: What the Tea Party's Really Serving America 
House Reads the Constitution, Should Defend Its Values
Smithsonian: Just Put the Art Back
Meet the Leadership: Corporate America and the Religious Right's New Team in the HouseAnd, for ongoing, detailed coverage of the Far Right, visit RightWingWatch.org.