They rejected kings and were sincerely concerned about the possibility of a dictatorship. But we need to move past founder-worship and focus on justice.
They rejected kings and were sincerely concerned about the possibility of a dictatorship. But we need to move past founder-worship and focus on justice.
Today’s Republicans say they want to follow the Founders’ intent, but it’s all a lie. There are only two reasons why they have this Founder fetish:
It is always convenient to be able to base rulings on the opinions of people who have been dead for hundreds of years, because you can’t ask them what they really think. I think the Founders would have had a lot to say about today’s Christian Nationalists, most of it uncharitable.
Their endgame has always been to call a Constitutional Convention, and rewrite the whole thing from scratch. Poof! Now they are the New Founders, and Precedent says they will be fetishized for another 250+ years. Imagine US History buffs of the future scrutinizing the essential writings of the new Founding Fathers: McConnell, Roberts, MTG, Sean Hannity. Future armchair historians will analyze Trump social media posts like they are the Federalist Papers! Maybe someone will make an epic musical out of them…
2 is right, but the reasons aren’t for aggrandizement (at least, not mainly). It’s for more power and the legitimacy of that power.
But it seems that they don’t need to convene a convention if the Supreme Court and Congress can simply allow Trump to ignore laws with impunity.
I’m already working on a musical about them, but I think I may have to send it out of the country to be both published (under an assumed name) and performed.