Democrats put Match to the Constitution

By Steve Huntley

November 1, 2024

It’s hypocrisy and deception of the highest order.

And it’s one thing Democrats excel at — accusing others of dark plots that they themselves are actively pursuing.

Consider the drumbeat of allegations that Donald Trump, if returned to the White House, would use the power of government to punish his enemies.

Yet it’s the Democrats — Joe Biden’s hyper-politicized Justice Department and politically motivated prosecutors at the state and county level — who have wrecked 235 years of precedent by legally persecuting the leader of the opposing party. That would be the Washington, D.C., New York and Atlanta lawfare campaigns against Republican Trump.

Just last week, President Biden blurted out, “Lock him up.” His often-addled brain worked well enough for him to realize he had let the cat out of the bag and he quickly cleaned up his message, saying “politically lock him up.” But the truth was there for all to see.

And it’s not just at the federal level that Democrats use government to attack those who deem are opponents. Far left bureaucrats in progressive California have denied new launch dates for Elon Musk’s Space X rockets from the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The reason is stated publicly — they don’t like his political support for Trump. That’s an egregious assault on Musk’s First Amendment rights.

In another unhinged accusation against Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris asserts, “At stake in this election is the Constitution of the United States.”

Once again, in fact, it’s Democrats and progressives who’d like to put a match to the Constitution. This is the latest, and in the long run, perhaps the most significant front in the progressive war on America.

Barrages against our sacred governing document spring regularly from the progressive world. The Constitution is “trash” in the pages of Nation magazine. It’s “broken and should not be reclaimed” in the opinion pages of the New York Times. In a new book, the law school dean at the University of California-Berkeley proposes scrapping the whole thing and assembling a constitutional convention to write a new one.

The depth and breadth of the far left’s grievances against the Constitution are astonishing.

First up, they hate one of its basic concepts, that of federalism. That’s the clear delineation of powers between the federal government and the states. It’s aimed at protecting the minority rights of small states. It’s also a check on centralized power in Washington.

Liberal venom targets the Electoral College, which seeks to balance the less populated states against the states with huge populations in presidential elections. This, one New Yorker writer fumes, “effectively amplifies the political power of rural areas at the expense of the country’s richest and most productive areas.”

Similarly, they complain about the U.S. Senate awarding each state equal representation in the upper chamber of Congress. That’s “anti-democratic,” they shriek.

Of course it is. It’s a feature, not a defect, of the Constitution.

The Founders were suspicious of unchecked democracy. They worried about the potential tyranny of a few big states over the many less populated states. They feared an unrestrained majority of voters degenerating into “mobocracy.” They created a democratic republic with checks and balances and respect for the states and the individual.

Imagine if New York, Illinois, California, and Massachusetts could lord over the rest of the country. Wealth redistribution, critical race theory and the transgenderism exploitation of kids would be shoved down our throats.

The compromise creating the Senate and Electoral College reflected reasonable fears and was necessary to get the Constitution ratified by the original 13 states in 1788.

Contempt for the Senate and Electoral College marks just the beginning of the left’s disdain for our Constitution.

They don’t much care for the first sentence of Article I declaring that “all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States ….”

Those few words are a barrier to the radical Democrats’ vision of an administrative state controlling our lives. In their nirvana, Congress passes broad and vague laws and lets an army of “experts” — unelected bureaucrats — write the details as they see fit. The average American’s role is to jump when and where the administrative state dictates.

Another article of the Constitution, the one establishing an independent judiciary, is regularly smeared by Democrat demagogues like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. To them, the U.S. Supreme Court is legitimate only when it issues rulings agreeable to the progressive agenda. The high court is facing its most vicious assault since the attacks of segregationists in the 1950s. They, by the way, were also Democrats.

The Bill of Rights is full of measures leftists hate.

Start with the First Amendment right of free speech. The Democrats’ vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, declares “there is no guarantee of free speech on misinformation and hate speech.”

Nonsense.

“Misinformation” and “disinformation” are Orwellian terms the far left adopted to delegitimize dissent. Popular concepts don’t need protection. It’s unconventional speech and even ugly thinking that require constitutional protections if freedom is to reign.

For further and extensive examples of the left’s war on free speech, read the comprehensive JohnKassNews.com column “The Indispensable Right”.

Also earning left-wing ire is the First Amendment’s protection of the right of religion and free conscience.

Liberals are horrified that a Christian baker can refuse to use his creative talents to fashion a special wedding cake for a gay couple. They are repulsed by the idea that the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor can’t be compelled to adhere to government dictates about contraception.

And now Harris indicates she would favor forcing doctors to perform abortions even when that would conflict with their religious beliefs.

The First Amendment would have no friend in a President Harris White House.

Well known is the left’s loathing of the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right of self-protection through gun ownership.

The Tenth Amendment’s protection of state’s prerogatives in governing is odious to the far left crowd that crave total control centralized in Washington and the administrative state apparatus.

Beyond the Bill of Rights, progressives don’t care for the color-blind equal protection rights of the 14th amendment. That stands in the way of their schemes to divvy up America by race and gender.

And frustrating all left-wing goals of undermining constitutional protections is the high bar the document sets for changes — constitutional amendments must be approved by three-fourths of the states.

The upcoming election will be critical in charting how the next chapter of the Democrats’ offensive against the Constitution will take place.

For example, consider an election victory for Trump in the Electoral College but not the popular vote.

Very quickly you’ll hear complaints that the Trump presidency is not legitimate. Liberals in Congress and the Democrats’ lapdog media will use that to fight Trump’s agenda. They might even come up with another big lie like the Russian collusion hoax.

Already Democrats have an alternative to the Electoral College in the works — the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Under this proposal, a state’s electoral votes would go to the winner of the national popular vote, no matter the actual results of that state.

This compact would go into effect once enough states with a total of 270 electoral votes (the number needed for victory) sign on to it. So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia accounting for 209 electoral votes have joined.

A lawsuit would surely follow should this compact ever go into effect and influence the outcome of an election by changing the actual results in one or more states.

Another election scenario: Harris wins the White House but Republicans take control of the Senate.

With Republicans in the upper chambering blocking Harris’ radical agenda (yes, I know she says she will govern as a moderate but so did Joe Biden), you could expect a torrent of complaints about the anti-democratic nature of the Senate.

Another scenario — actually the worst case scenario: Harris wins the presidency and Democrats control both houses of Congress.

Here the left wing might actually realize its dream of, in effect, rewriting the Constitution. First they could pack the Supreme Court with radicals committed to turning our governing document into “a living constitution.” In other words, the Constitution would mean whatever liberals want.

Then Democrats would throw out the Senate filibuster — another protection for minority rights — to enact their agenda.

They could make the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico states. That would give them four new Democrat senators, going a long way toward ensuring left-wing dominance of Capitol Hill. And it would give Democrats more Electoral College clout.

A progressive Congress and White House could write whatever laws they want and radicals on the high court ignoring the Constitution’s plain language would ratify them.

For progressives, that would mark a triumph for their ambitions to remake America. For the rest of us, it’s a nightmare for America and the rule of law.

One more election scenario: Trump wins both the Electoral College and the popular vote, and Republicans take control of the Congress.

Problem solved, right?

Short term yes.

But long term, the far left never gives up.

Remember the Reagan Revolution of the ‘80s. By all appearances, conservatives had won politically.

But, as we now know, the radicals were hard at work infiltrating themselves and their toxic ideology into our culture.

They came to dominate movies and television productions and are in charge of most social media.

They have seized control of our elite universities, turning them from institutions instructing the young on how to think into political factories indoctrinating students in what to think.

And, as parents learned when they watched zoom classes during the Covid lockdown, the radicals have infected high school and elementary classes with their venomous anti-Americanism.

Today we have men competing in women’s sports, denying girls trophies and blue ribbons. Government censors social media and stifles dissent. Racial discrimination rules from the college campus to corporate HR offices.

Progressive contempt for Christianity spreads like a cancer. Antisemitism roils university campuses and liberal big cities.

The administrative state insinuates its tentacles into ever more corners of American life. Government is bigger than ever.

Respect for the Constitution once was nearly universal. Now the left doesn’t even bother to hide its contempt for it and America. To them, the Constitution is the work of slave-owning white men and an obstacle to their vision of a woke America.

The struggle to preserve the Constitution is only beginning. Conservatives and anyone who loves and respects the wisdom and common sense of our republic’s governing document should hunker down for a long fight.

-30-

Steve Huntley, a retired Chicago journalist now living in Austin, Texas, has contributed other pieces to johnkassnews.com from an examination of the secret jail for Christopher Columbus and other politically problematic public art to an essay on Americans suffering from Joe Biden gas pain.

For almost three decades Huntley spent most of his career in Chicago journalism at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he was a feature writer, metro reporter, night city editor, metropolitan editor, editorial page editor and a columnist for the opinion pages.

Before that he was a reporter and editor with United Press International (UPI) in the South and Chicago, and Chicago bureau chief and a senior editor in Washington with U.S. News & World Report. Northwestern University Press has issued soft cover and eBook editions of Knocking Down Barriers: My Fight for Black America by Truman K. Gibson Jr. with Steve Huntley, a memoir of a Chicagoan who was a member of President Roosevelt’s World War II Black Cabinet working to desegregate the military.

Comments 32

  2. Timely piece for me, personally, as I was just arguing with a Democrat last night regarding the popular vote. Our system of checks and balances works and the desire by the left to change the rules when they don’t like who was elected or appointment must be exposed for what it is.

  5. A needed civics primer. 13 distrustful states came together to create a limited federal government with powers to the states except when otherwise stated (10th Amendment.) I used to teach that the federal government was formed to deliver the mail, coin money, and provide for the common defense only. Getting students attention, only then did I list the 20 other enumerated powers.

  11. Great Article showing how the far left wing is taking over. I would add that the
    Democrats have a great ally in the Chinese Communist Party. One can see that members of the California Democrat Party are aligned with the CCP. Eric Swalwell, a low life scum bag member of the congress was shacking up with a CCP spy, Fang Fang. Diane Fienstein’s driver was a CCP spy and he worked for her for 20 years. The Governor of New York has her own CCP spy problem. The CCP is buying land all over the USA, especially near military installations. They float balloons over the USA, concentrating on military installations. And best of all, Hunter Biden is Joe’s bagman for goodies doled out by the Commies to the Biden Crime Family.

    Thousands off young Chinese men have infiltrated the US via the southern border, apparently with the blessing of the Border Czar, Kamala the Cackler. She picked Tampon Tim Walz, a true believer of Communism who visited the CCP over 30 times.

    An administration of Kamala and Tim will allow the Chicoms to invade Taiwan and fulfill the dreams the the CCP. Kamala and Tim will proclaim that it is only a small island.

    Think about this when you vote by next Tuesday.

    1. Agree with you completely Harry. People always underestimate how China plays the long game. We never should have allowed foreign governments to own land in our country. So many in the US think China is our “friend”. They are so deluded.

  12. Very well put. And our sovereignty has been damaged by overt Biden action, so that there are over 10 million or more illegal aliens in circulation now.
    When the radical Marxist elements of the Democrat left flank initiate the next round of post-election civil disturbances, you can be sure they will have foreign agents assisting.

  13. We are the UNITED STATES of America. 50 DIFFERENT political or geographic units that were originally thirteen. They decided to unify to allow for protection of the Union, establish a monetary system to foster commerce and set laws for the common good. However they reserved the states rights to self govern as well. The federal government is full of functionaries that effectively make policy which is de-facto “the law”. The left likes central control in direct opposition to the Constitution. Remember the thousands of IRS agents the Dems wanted to hire? That was scary. If everyone’s 1040 were scrutinized I’m sure even some of the poorer wage earners would be targeted and further taxed. Tax and spend is the mantra.
    Thank you for an excellent lesson on the Constitution. Sadly civics and the constitution are an afterthought in school. We have a precious RIGHT come Tuesday. VOTE, not in lockstep with what you are told by the media but in your OWN interest for the United States of America.

  14. Two minor “amendments” to Mr. Huntley’s invaluable study of the Democrats’ campaign to convert constitutionalism to neo-Marxism:

    1. In creating the Electoral College to counter-balance dense population centers, the Constitution’s brilliant authors SPECIFICALLY noted and voted to contain the leverage of New York and Boston, recognizing America’s first big cities as already threatening tyrannical power. With westward migration having given Los Angeles the power base of colonial Boston, the wisdom of the Electoral College is even more crucial today.

    2. Buzzwords of psychology are usually lazy and inaccurate. But there’s an ideal word to define authoritarian left-wing Democrats accusing the other side of subverting democracy: projection.

  15. I’m a big fan of The Convention of States, which is where I will be dedicating my time and money going forward. Thank you Mr. Huntley for the info on this other Convention proposition, to write a new Constitution. It reeks of the passage of the 14th and 17th amendments, which did nothing more that concentrate more power to the Central authority – and were, of course, as expected, passed illegally and through brute force and fear. Yes sir, War is Hell, and you don’t ever want it visited upon you, trust me.

    Anyone, with a fraction of a brain, who has been in business for more than say a day, can see that the United States’ true value proposition lies in the potential value of its parts, not the whole.

    So it could be time to go our separate ways – just figure it out. And this time DO IT PEACEFULLY

  16. I recently pointed out on FB how lawfare is now being used against Musk. Not only is it tyrannical, it’s stupid. Without SpaceX we have no space program and would then be dependent on the Russians for trips to the space station. The competitors, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, or Boeing are not close. First Trump, now Musk, then the rest of us.

    I can’t recall the exact numbers, but if a Presidential candidate wins 60% of the 8 largest metro areas, they win the popular vote. Therefore, the federal government and presidential campaigns would focus all their time and attention on only these areas. Without the electoral college, the rest of the country would be ignored, and become a wasteland.

    Musk has predicted if the Democrats win this election, it will be the last. The comment seems strange, but here is the explanation. The new immigrants of the least 4 years have been granted asylum and could have citizenship in 5 years. They are being moved to the swing states. They will be obligated to vote Democrat to get more family members into the country. Then the swing states will be gone. This is exactly what happened to California.

  17. I hear they don’t teach civics in the schools anymore. If that’s true, Steve’s column should be required reading. It’s an excellent essay – Civics 101.

    1. Greg since you had a first row seat to our government in action – in fact you were part of our representative government – perhaps consider your next JK contribution as a discussion of who effectively runs our government? Is it our representatives as originally envisioned by the Founders or the “impartial experts” in our vast federal administrative state … Wilson’s vision? Is the fear of the “administrative state” unfounded … or not? Despite “all legislative power be vested in a Congress of the United States” how is it possible to run a complex modern society without at least some delegation of authority to “experts” in a federal bureaucracy?

  20. Steve absolutely nailed it. I’m sharing this column with everyone I know so they’ll understand EXACTLY what’s at stake Tuesday. Some may hate Trump, but I guarantee they’ll really hate the Amerika we’ll have if the commiecrats win.

  21. A couple of thoughts — calling a Constitutional Convention to rewrite the Constitution is a hard, uphill slog. It requires that 2/3’ s of the states call for it. In other words, the inaction of 17 states can kill the idea. Even if that hurdle was passed because 34 states call for it, it probably would require that 3/4s of the states (38) ratify it.

    The National Popular Vote Interstate Electoral Compact, if ever implemented, will undoubtedly be challenged in the court.

    The founders were, rightly I believe, wary of democracy which they would regard as “mob rule.” When the 1787 Constitutional Convention concluded, a lady questioned Benjamin Franklin on what kind of government it produced, he responded “A Republic, madam, if you can keep it.” He most clearly didn’t say “Democracy.”

  22. Excellent presentation of the situation we find ourselves in. I’ve printed off a copy for myself as a reminder for when I’m writing responses and rejoinders to some of the nit-wits who post things on Facebook and who make idiotic comments at the coffee shop. Especially of value is the reminder that our young people are not being taught American History and anything about the Constitution and it’s beginnings. They have NO idea of the rationale behind so much that is there. For too many, the depth of their thinking is at about mud puddle depth…..heard one yesterday: a young man telling me he isn’t going to vote for Trump “…because I saw the video of him throwing rolls of paper towels at people.” I know him to be in his mid-20’s…..how do you even start with something like that?????

  23. One of the best articles I’ve ever read on the Constitution,
    government and elections. Concise with a punch.
    Definitely a keeper for future reference.
    Thank you, Steve!

  24. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact appears to me to be plainly unconstitutional in that Art I Sec 10 – “without the consent of Congress” – bars interstate compacts.

    As far as the 10th amendment is concerned, there is irony here. Under the anticommandeering interpretation of the 10th as put forth by the God Father of Originalism – the late Justice Anthony Scalia – the 10th has been used by the Left to justify the “sanctuary” cities and states whereby such cities and states effectively can ignore federal immigration law. So as opposed to Steve’s view point, when it comes to one of the Lefts’ pet policies – sanctuary cities – the Left loves the 10th.

  25. God help us! I’m reminded how it was in DC after Trump became POTUS, the Leftist rioting and disrupting people leaving that scene. Yes the Left IS the true Anti-American regime. Perhaps the only thing to reunite America is a foreign invasion? Which will never happen under POTUS Donald J Trump. Shining America, destroyed like every other nation but from the inside out, voter frogs in the pot loved killing their unborn while never thinking about anything else. It started when the Bible was removed from education. Ever seen The New England Primer, 1690 era?

  27. I just had an epiphany! I mean it. Mr Huntley reached me. He is right, we are in the fight of our lives.

    So let’s do this, if we take the Presidency, the Senate, the House..we have the Court. Let’s turn Massachusetts, Illinois and California into “special military districts”. Massachusetts can be special military district number one.

    Then we start amending, and un-amending the Constitution until we pull it ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE START. Then we let the disenfranchised States back in, once they elect a legislature to our liking, and ratify our amendments.

    We have to fight as Mr. Huntley suggests!

    Is there precedent for this? Here is a hint, from an old song

    “Carry me back, to Ole Special Military District number one”

    I truly love, and am so grateful for this site, this space.

  28. Excellent & well thought out writing Steve Huntley. You put into words a master class for all to understand why our Constitution was written as it was & how it has been constantly undermined since our founding. Those in power are chipping away at the foundation little by little. If it truly came to Leftist rule I truly believe we would have civil war. The people here in the south who during the civil war fought to join the union are now the ones who will fight to the death to keep this country & its founding values.

  29. It’s always a pleasure to read the work of a fellow former Unipresser.

    In Connecticut, where I live, the state Democrats have a problem. During the first Trump presidential administration, they changed a law, requiring their electors to the Electoral College to vote the way the majority of the country did.

    In other words, this year, they’re required to vote against their fellow Nutmeggers and vote for Trump.

    Talk about being clever by half.

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