Now here, from George Will, is some really frightening stuff--the stuff that Orwellian nightmares are made of, that our Founders risked their lives to forfend, that only jackbooted Trotskyites would defend. "[W]hen next you hear histrionic warnings about tea party or other conservative 'extremism,' try to think of anything on the right comparable to [Democratic Rep. Jim] McGovern’s proposed vandalism of the Bill of Rights," which, asserts Will (based on the legal opinion of one conservative scholar), "would mow down the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, as well as the First."
Oh my God. We knew it. We just knew it. Allen West was right. There really are 81 communists posing as Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives (make that 82, because one of the vandals is a Republican). And just what is the specific target of their nefarious scheme to annihilate free speech and, as Will further frames it, "regulate religious practices at most houses of worship, conduct whatever searches it wants, reasonable or not, of corporate entities, and seize corporate-owned property"? You guessed it: the liberty-flowering splendor of Citizens United.
And here (pdf) is the nefarious scheme itself, in the form of a proposed Constitutional Amendment:
SECTION 1. We the people who ordain and establish this Constitution intend the rights protected by this Constitution to be the rights of natural persons. SECTION 2. The words people, person, or citizen as used in this Constitution do not include corporations, limited liability companies or other corporate entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state, and such corporate entities are subject to such regulation as the people, through their elected State and Federal representatives, deem reasonable and are otherwise consistent with the powers of Congress and the States under this Constitution. SECTION 3. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to limit the people’s rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free exercise of religion, freedom of association and all such other rights of the people, which rights are inalienable.
In short, be it known that corporations aren't people, hence government may regulate their activities, which includes the toxic dumping of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars into The People's political contests.
It's a long, circuitous and tortured intellectual path from this proposed Amendment's wording to George Will's absolute frenzy. But he pulls he off nicely, don't you think?
As usual I agree with you, regarding Will. But he did write this (mostly) sweet column: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jon-will-40-years-and-going-with-down-syndrome/2012/05/02/gIQAdGiNxT_story.html
Posted by: Joseph Blough | May 07, 2012 at 07:33 AM