NYT Column: Scrap The Constitution

By Lonely Conservative

In The New York Times is a column expressing the progressive dream – scrapping the constitution entirely. Oh sure, we could keep the parts we like, even though in theory this would mean those holding power have absolutely nothing requiring them to leave those parts in. But hey, we might as well just toss that old archaic piece of paper out because so many politicians have violated it.

AS the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.

Consider, for example, the assertion by the Senate minority leader last week that the House could not take up a plan by Senate Democrats to extend tax cuts on households making $250,000 or less because the Constitution requires that revenue measures originate in the lower chamber. Why should anyone care? Why should a lame-duck House, 27 members of which were defeated for re-election, have a stranglehold on our economy? Why does a grotesquely malapportioned Senate get to decide the nation’s fate?

Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.

As someone who has taught constitutional law for almost 40 years, I am ashamed it took me so long to see how bizarre all this is.

Read the whole thing, if only to be tuned into how the left thinks. Obviously, it hasn’t dawned on the writer of this piece that if all of the politicians had followed the constitution we wouldn’t be saddled with such a dysfunctional political system. Oh, and the author is a constitutional law professor at Georgetown. Just think what he’s teaching his students.

Be sure to see Instapundit’s response to this garbage.