Conservative Sandwiches

Sheldon Richman of the Future of Freedom Foundation on Phony-Baloney Constitutionalists:

Conservatives favor strict construction of the U.S. Constitution. How do we know? They never stop telling us so.

But judging by what they say about the late Iraq war, we may conclude that most conservatives are just phony-baloney constitutionalists. These politicians, such as Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.), and pundits, such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, are as committed to the pernicious idea of the “living Constitution” as the so-called liberals they despise.

The “living Constitution” is the doctrine that the principles in the Constitution, which was supposed to limit government power and thereby protect individual liberty, must change with the times — without resort to the onerous amendment procedure specified in the same document. Thus when the Supreme Court during the New Deal upheld legislation that previous generations of Americans would have condemned as unconstitutional, big-government advocates invoked the “living Constitution” doctrine to explain why amendment was unnecessary.

Sheldon has exposed, once again, the difference between libertarians and conservatives – our actions.

This entry also posted at Stand Down.