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.
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.