When your motivational core is directed by , "If it irritates a liberal , it is Goody goody good" you may tend not to become bogged down in such niceties as logic or reason .

to answer your question, umm ... no, of course most people do not have a clue what these people want.

To follow up on the Rob Bishop incident in Utah, he loves to harp about the 10th amendment; Mike Lee, the presumptive new senator from my great state, wants to turn the 17th.

What is fascinating is the selectiveness of this all. THere is no effort at portraying the entire document, nor how we manage to use the entire thing to sort of manage the nation. Repups. of course skirt the whole

"he Congress shall have power To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States"

ie, they blow off the whole general welfare concept;

likewise, many ignore the [Congress shall have Power...] To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

which to many of us [ and to Robert Byrd, whose defense of this was in retrospect, pretty damn good] seems to indicate the Bush-Obama wars are on thin constitutional ice ..

I am sure we could go on ...

Has anyone even bothered to contemplate what would happen if Social Security were declared unconstitutional. Not only would benefits end, but all of the money contributed would be required to be refunded. If we treated this argument with a small amount of sincerity it would be exposed for the hoax it is. But it seems that arguments from the right never get the proper analysis.

Forty years ago we had the "back to the land" movement, with communal living, and the Whole Earth Catalog was our Bible. Ken Kesey, the Hog Farm, Merry Pranksters, the Dead. Free love, free drugs, and no guns on the Magic Bus.

Those aging hippies have metastasized into the Tea Party, with plenty of guns, and even more paranoia. They long for the days of Original Intent, without the faintest of idea of what that entails.

Our parents were right. Drugs WILL rot your mind. . .

Steve,
"I have to wonder if the electorate fully appreciates what's become of Republicans' ideology in recent years."
SATSQ: NO!
How can they, unless they read you or other liberal bloggers, happen to tune in to watch Ed, Keith or Rachel on MSNBC, or turn to a liberal comumnist in the NY Times, and whoever's left besides Dionne at the WaPo?
The rest of the media is too busy building false equivalencies to point out how f*cking crazy these people have gotten.

"I have to wonder if the electorate fully appreciates what's become of Republicans' ideology in recent years."

Why should they? On one hand, they have a completely supine mass media bought and paid for by large corporate interests. On the other, they have Democrats, including the President, who refuse to aggressively and consistently attack the Republicans on these issues. Remember, it was Barack Obama himself, aided and abetted by the worst possible advice from David Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuel, who insisted on bipartisanship in dealing with Republicans, thereby completely tying his own hands. At its core, this is an ideological struggle, and Barack Obama's singular failure is that he's been unable or unwilling to recognize this and address it head-on as the leader of the Democratic Party.

"Those aging hippies have metastasized into the Tea Party"

Unless you can provide facts and data and evidence to support it, this is a completely asinine and ridiculous assertion.

DAY,
For once I disagree with you. These aren't the fun-loving hippies of the '60's and '70's. The Teabaggers are the ones who DIDN'T go to Woodstock, or protest the war, or nuclear energy. These were the people who became part of the work force, Nixon's "Silent Majority" and "The Reagan Revolution."
Now, they think it might be fun to do what their friends and neighbors did back in the day. And, the only cause is not peace, or stopping dangerous nuclear energy, no, it's greed, something they're very used to, and can really appreciate.

Assuming the Dems have control in at least one chamber, they really should put some of the nuttier stuff up for a vote. Make the GOP vote on whether they support the 14th or 17th amendment. Make them vote on birther bills. Expose them.

Right now, they rely on the passion, the money and the votes of the crazies but don't pay a political penalty because they ignore the crazies right after the election is over. Don't let them ignore the idiots, make them fight for the idiots or face their wrath.

Whether the Civil War was fought over slavery has become an issue in a legislative race in house district 4 in northwestern Montana. See the Whitefish Pilot, the Flathead Beacon, Flathead Memo. and MTCowgirl (the latter two dot coms) for details. These are people who are more than just a little to the right of the bell curve.

Isn't it obvious that "all men are created equal" meant just "White Men"?

Isn't it obvious that any mention of the word "men" meant "male" since women didn't have the right to vote?

Where in the words of the Constitution is there anything that supports "Brown V Board of Education"?

Many scholars have said that the reason there is no land ownership requirement in the Constitution is that the writers decided to leave that decision to the States.

Robert Bork was correct. States have a constitutional right to prohibit contraceptive use between married couples.

aging hippies have metastasized into the Tea Party...
As theories go this may be the most serious one ever revealed on The Political Animal .
Mein Gott in Himmel

A comment in the fine article, yesterday, about the billionaires bankrolling the TPers, reminded me of 1992. The Hillsboro housewife who is making calls out of Oregon in support of Angle, Rossi and the like, said, that she had not been interested in politics until recently. Then, she noticed the deficit and wars we were not trying to win, so, she became an activist. The tie-in to '92 was with the many Ross Perot supporters, who, said similar things about having never been interested in politics. Then, the RP guys and gals would whip out their pocket size book on the Constitution and start ranting about the 10th Amendment. If you asked anyone of them, and I imagine the same would hold true for the Hillsboro lady, anything about any historical political fact, including very recent events, they could not answer one question. But, they could rant and rave on about the 10th Amendment because, now, they were politically aware.

Plus, many of these newcomers see no need for a Supreme Court, as they, all, have their Constitutional handbooks, and, by Gott, it sez right thar.....................

I do believe many of these are much closer to Hummel than to Himmel.

I have to wonder if the electorate fully appreciates what's become of Republicans' ideology in recent years.

Obviously they don't, or the Republicans wouldn't be in the position they are in. A more important point is that very few Americans have any kind of a useful understanding of the Constitution or the political process. The past 30 years, anyone under 40 has been taught "social studies" in public school that leave them with little if any understanding of the American political process (assuming any of them could read the books on their desks, a big problem for those between 24-40 who got "whole language" mis-education).

This whole election can be explained by understanding that the majority of Americans are politically illiterate - and while you can include more Republicans in that, it cuts both ways.

aging hippies have metastasized into the Tea Party...As theories go this may be the most serious one ever revealed on The Political Animal. Mein Gott in Himmel

This is completely stupid, sir. But I don't think you're stupid for saying it, merely misinformed about the Great Myth of the Sixties. Let me assure you, as one who was there, that the vast majority of my generation never partook of "the Sixties" other than to finally smoke some marijuana, attend a rock concert, and forget to go to the barber for awhile. Those three things do not a "hippie" make. The truth is that less than 15% of the "Boomer" generation were involved with what went on back then on anything more than a very shallow, surface level (about the way things work nowadays, too). There is not one real "hippie" I knew back then who I still know who is involved with the Tea Party as other than a dedicated opponent.

It is not as if we republicans want to rewrite the Constitution. We would be ecstatic to return to the original Constitution where only white male property owners had the right to vote!

In the meantime, we will settle for repealing or changing the:
- 4th amendment for muslims, democrats, and other enemies of our country
- 6th amendment for same as above
- 13th amendment for blacks and debtors
- 14th amendment for mexicans and other spics
- 15th amendment for any non-white person
- 16th amendment completely
- 19th amendment completely as all real problems in our country can be traced to giving women the right to vote
- 22nd amendment for republicans
- 24th amendment completely

This should prove to you hippy assholes that we republicans are willing to compromise!

The enabling act comes to mind.

others have made the comment as well, but i strongly disagree with day's remark. i AM one of those aging hippies, and i am as progressive as one gets.

oh, and btw, drugs do NOT rot your mind.

-well, THAT attempt at snark failed. . .

One of many things you wouldn't know if you depended on the MSM for information on things political.

I suppose the only silver lining to electing these ignorant extremists is that eventually they will fail spectacularly. And Democrats, lacking party unity and any kind of functioning message machine, can win only when Republicans fail spectacularly. So I suppose sometime in the future, after Sarah Palin and her ilk have dismantled the social safety net and destroyed the lives of millions of ordinary Americans, Democrats can once again take a majority, which they will again squander by failing to aggressively defend themselves against GOP lies and distortions. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

These rightwingers read the Constitution just like the christian right wingers among them read the Bible. They only read the parts they agree with and that serve their narrow lust to wealth and to control everyone else's life.

Well, I, for one, certainly look forward to repealing that whole "don't eat shellfish" bit. Hold on a sec. To which document were we talking about applying selective revisionism? Is it a big surprise that the same group of people who treat the bible as an a la carte menu of morality want to treat the Constitution and its amendments in the same manner?