I don’t typically agree with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. about anything, but I was struck by comments he made during a March 2021 podcast called Truth.
Recounting an experience he had at a recent political rally in Berlin, Kennedy said, “I was shaking hands, and I wasn’t wearing a mask. Nobody was. There were a million people there, and no one was wearing a mask. An NBC crew came up and said, ‘Aren’t you scared of getting the coronavirus?’ I said, ‘There’s something I’m more fearful of.’ They asked, ‘Like what?’ ‘Like losing my constitutional rights.'”
He continued, “The American Revolution took place because you had people who were willing to die for the Constitution. Not lose their rights. The Constitution was not written for easy times or popular speech. … It was built for emergencies and to protect the speech that was unpopular, that was dissenting government policies. … For hundreds of years, our government protected that right religiously. You get to say things that offend other people.”
Kennedy is right: The Constitution is the reason we enjoy the freedoms we do and the bulwark that prevents the federal government from stripping us of those freedoms. No wonder, then, that it is also a target for progressives eager to do away with our system of checks and balances.
There’s a growing belief among liberals that the Constitution, arguably one of the finest documents ever created, is obsolete and should be rewritten to accommodate modern times. One of the most notable proponents of this position is former President Barack Obama.
During his 2012 reelection campaign, Forbes writer Paul Roderick Gregory unearthed comments Obama had made in a 2001 interview with a Chicago public radio station. Far from trying to hide his redistributionist roots, the then-state senator took aim at the Constitution. He said, “We still suffer from not having a constitution that guarantees its citizens economic rights.”
He viewed the Constitution as “a charter of negative liberties,” which “says what the states can’t do to you, what the federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf.”
Obama considered the Constitution to be a “flawed document” from which we must “break free.” He instead advocated a “living” Constitution, one that changes with the times.
However, Democrats like Obama understand that actually shredding the Constitution and adopting a new one would be a Herculean effort, so they have instead decided simply to ignore it as much as possible. Although they are inconveniently reminded of its existence from time to time, this strategy has generally worked for them.
Over the past 18 months, the Biden administration has slowly tried to strip us of our constitutional rights. In coordination with Big Tech companies, President Joe Biden has worked to censor speech he considers “disinformation.” He has informed us several times that our Second Amendment rights are not absolute and that he would do everything he could to restrict them. Several Jan. 6 protesters have been deprived of due process under the law. And many people, because of Biden’s mandates, were forced to choose between getting the COVID-19 vaccine, the long-term effects of which are still unknown, or losing their jobs.
Add to this the administration’s efforts to abolish the Electoral College and federalize elections.
Constitutional? I don’t think so.
Progressive Democrats are also demanding that Biden help them pack the Supreme Court or abolish it entirely in response to the court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Though Biden has thus far refused to endorse his party’s radical court-packing agenda, he did come out in favor of gutting the Senate’s filibuster — a legislative tool that, while not prescribed directly by the Constitution, helps the Senate function as the Constitution’s framers meant.
In other words, Biden is determined to nullify the Supreme Court’s ruling by whatever means necessary, even if he has to destroy the norms he pledged to restore, and upend the legislative process he once defended. Fortunately, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), whose votes would be essential to carving out an exception to the filibuster, have reiterated their opposition to doing so.
But Manchin and Sinema’s commitment does not change the fact that Democrats have wildly abused their power. Fortunately, the inviolable limitations built into the Constitution have prevented the party from passing its entire radical agenda, one that would guarantee single-party rule in the United States for years to come.
The Constitution is the only thing protecting our freedom, fragile as it feels at the moment.
And until the Constitution is nullified and replaced, it remains the law of the land.
Elizabeth Stauffer is a contract writer at the Western Journal. Her articles have appeared on many conservative websites, including RedState, Newsmax, the Federalist, Bongino.com, HotAir, MSN, and RealClearPolitics. Follow Elizabeth on Twitter or LinkedIn.
