Memo to Governor Romney: The Constitution Is Not a Conservative Document

[Tx4obama]

Memo to Governor Romney: The Constitution Is Not a Conservative Document
by Menachem Rosensaft, Professor of law and son of Holocaust survivors

A comment by Governor Mitt Romney during his Meet the Press interview caught my attention. Asked by David Gregory whether he was "the moderate from Massachusetts who championed Universal Health Care, who at one time was for abortion rights" or "a severe conservative," the Republican presidential nominee answered that "I'm as conservative as the Constitution."

This one sentence helps to explain why Governor Romney continues to struggle to connect with many of us on the issue of civil and human rights. In the words of John Podesta, White House Chief of Staff under President Clinton, and John Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Governor Romney has embraced "the conservative interpretation of the Constitution as an unchangeable document that endorses laissez-faire capitalism and prohibits government efforts to provide a better existence for all Americans."

Others view the Constitution through a different prism. Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote that it "is not a strait-jacket. It is a living organism capable of growth -- of expansion and of adaptation to new conditions. Growth implies changes, political, economic and social. Growth which is significant manifests itself rather in intellectual and moral conceptions than in material things. Because our Constitution possesses the capacity of adaptation, it has endured as the fundamental law of an ever-developing people."

Professor Geoffrey R. Stone, former law school dean and provost at the University of Chicago, has eloquently described the Constitution as "the vehicle through which generations of Americans have made and remade their nation ... Almost without exception, our constitutional amendments have been progressive in nature, expanding both individual freedoms and the opportunity for individual Americans to participate more fully in the political and economic life of the nation ... As understood by the American people, by our elected officials and by our Supreme Court, the Constitution has enabled the national government to enact laws that helped us through the devastation of the Great Depression; prohibited private discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin and disability; promoted workplace safety and the environment; and provided a critical safety net for the aged, the infirm and the needy."

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/menachem-rosensaft/memo-to-governor-romney-t_b_1880022.html

A Good Read

[oldsarge54]

1. Amen, and a Kicker

Does anyone remember the framers of the constitution? Were they conservatives or were they revolutionaries? Thomas Jefferson was a full blown anarchist, would have fit right in with the OWS types today. Ben Franklin was a hell raiser, on a quiet day.