Monday, July 20, 2015

Here comes the Revolution

Michael Patrick Leahy is a self-proclaimed “evangelist for constitutional liberty.” [Do not confuse him with Democratic Senator from Vermont Patrick Leahy.] Leahy says he made the conference call in 2009 that launched the Tea Party.

He contributes distorted ideals and misinformation for Breitbart.com. He’s the head loon. The inmate that runs the asylum. Leahy’s mind is a dark and dangerous place that has our country moving in a singular direction: Revolution.


Yes it all sounds very dark and looming, a force behind a grassroots movement with strong political ties and the reach of the ever popular conservative rag Breitbart. The reality is that Leahy is a kook who holds no office, the Tea Party is a dying movement started by the Koch brothers, not him; and his political action committee, The Real Conservatives National Party has an empty webpage and is a failure as a fundraiser or major political force.

Leahy is using the perception of political clout, when in reality he has none, to promote his next great idea, which is nothing more than a ploy to get himself a book deal. He has called for an “assembly of the states” to discuss the over reaching power of the federal government “after two terms of Barack Obama.”

Conservatives have been spreading the news far and wide, excited about the prospect of the states all getting together to resist the federal government. Resisting the federal government to these extreme right-wing wackadoos boils down to secession and revolution, moves many of them have waited their whole lives for.

A return to constitutional government, which means we will all cherish the 2nd Amendment, abolish the restriction on state sponsored religion in the first and neglect the 14th and any others that don’t suit our needs.

We will ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court we don’t like, makes memes about the ones we do and call President Obama a “usurper” for being democratically elected and affirmed by the Electoral College under Article II of the Constitution.

The issues Leahy thinks should be discussed he calls “practical and timely”:
(1) Which federal grants (presumably almost all) make the most sense for a state to reject and what are the best ways to deal with the real world consequences of those rejections?(2) What specific actions shall be taken to resist unconstitutional Supreme Court decisions?(3) What specific actions should be taken to resist egregious and unlawful federal regulations and which regulations are most deserving of resistance?(4) What practical free-market health care policies can be introduced at the state level that will improve the availability and delivery of health care services to residents of each state, given the federal government’s ever increasing tentacles of control in that sector of the economy?
In other words, what can the Tea Party do about grants that don’t go to energy companies, how do we cry about the Supreme Court and make it matter? How do we abolish the EPA and other federal agencies keeping big oil from completely destroying the planet? And what steps can we take to return insurance companies to archaic restriction-free profit margins at the expense of the health and well-being of our fellow man?

The premise Leahy uses for calling for a convention, which wouldn’t be an Article V convention, but more of a whine and cheese session for a bunch of Teahadists who are upset that they can’t seem to get their way, is a division of the states he came up with all by himself, where the “38 Great States” would come together to oppose the “Liberal Dirty Dozen.”

How he came up with the formula for which state belongs in which category is hilarious.

To be in the “Dirty Dozen” your states popular vote in the last Presidential election had to be at least 56.2 percent for Barack Obama. Why 56.2 percent? Because at 56.1 percent or under you risk pissing off one of the other 13 states who voted blue and gave their electoral votes to Obama.

Some of those states have “red” written all over them, like Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia. To say that 12 states should be outcasts for voting a certain percentage for Obama when 25 states plus the District of Columbia voted blue is not only misleading, it’s just plain wrong.

That doesn’t matter to Teabillies. The day is coming as far as they’re concerned. They’ve been polarized and ready since 2009 and even though they’re the fastest dying movement in politics, they still think they matter.

An assembly of the states has already been attempted and the result wasn’t what Republicans had hoped.

Republican state legislators have tried to convene assemblies like this and in fact have such a body incorporated right now. It’s called “The Assembly of State Legislatures,” and it’s intent is to move forward with an Article V convention to propose new amendments to the constitution.

The assembly has met three times already and if you so desire you can bore yourself to death watching their futile taxpayer-funded trips to DC, Virginia and Indiana on YouTube, along with the three people who have watched most of their videos. Two if you count me out.

The assembly consists of legislators “appointed” by whomever appoints people to a constitutional convention in their state from 18 states, all of which are considered red states, and “unofficial guests” from New Hampshire and Nebraska, who have no law or rule on the books for appointing such people.

As of yet the assembly has accomplished absolutely nothing, but they do have a Facebook page, a website and a Paypal account set up for donations.

At some point these people are just going to have to accept that their version of the constitution isn’t real. It’s a living, breathing document whose framers knew it would need to change, grow and evolve.

Thus the three branches of government, thus the separation of church and state. These were religious people, for the most part, who knew religion had no place in our government. Trying to change that more than 200 years later is not only wrong, it’s fruitless and downright ignorant.

Leave America alone, you imbeciles. Your version of who we are died over a century ago and we’re not going backwards.


Author Charles Topher is a lifetime lefty liberal from Lowell who has managed to migrate (legally) to the backwoods of Maine. He writes from a 1 acre progressive bubble where Nobama stickers on pickemup truck bumpers are common.