My morning paper runs a Mike Shelton cartoon branding Democrats as Constitution-trashers:
Readers interested in the constitutional debate over asking about citizenship on the Census and (the heart of the matter) electoral versus representational equality may turn to this excellent FiveThirtyEight.com essay. I want to take a moment to address the scurrilous charge that I as a Democrat hold the Constitution in such contempt.
- First Amendment: I opposed Senate Bill 110, which calls a private organization criminal for making true statements about the state’s effort to compel speech. My District 3 Senator, Republican Al Novstrup, wrote that bill and pushed it to passage with utter disregard for the First Amendment.
- First Amendment: I opposed House Bills 1177 and 1196, which compel speech and put undue burdens on South Dakotans’ right to petition for ballot questions. Republicans sponsored these measures; Al Novstrup voted against the weaker HB 1177 but voted for the worse HB 1196.
- Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments: I opposed Senate Bill 200, Neal Tapio’s absurdly unworkable and unconstitutional refugee ban. In speaking for this bad bill, Al Novstrup went further and advocated stripping entire classes of Americans of their equal protection from unreasonable search and seizure by advocating racial profiling. The sponsors of this bill were all Republcian, but Novstrup was the only Senator who voted for SB 200 in committee.
- Fifth Amendment: I opposed House Bill 1184, the CAFO poopline bill, which would have allowed counties to seize property rights to serve private businesses without due process. My District 3 House members, Republican Representatives Drew Dennert and Dan Kaiser, had the good sense to vote against HB 1184, and the bill ultimately died in Senate Transportation, but the unconstitutionally land-grabbing sponsors were all Republicans.
- First and Fourteenth Amendment: I opposed House Bill 1275, another onerous burden on petition rights whose geographical quotas would have violated the Equal Protection Clause as surely as a Colorado version of this law. Novstrup co-sponsored it, even though he couldn’t honestly explain it.
As a Democrat, I cherish, understand, and defend the Constitution. I cherish, understand, and defend the Constitution far more thoroughly than Al Novstrup and the Republicans in our Legislature who back measures like those I list above. I cherish, understand, and defend the Constitution far more than Republican Donald Trump, who speaks of suing reporters, taking away our guns without due process, and trying out a lifelong Presidency.
Shelton’s cartoon might be accurate if it showed us Democratic donkeys reaching for the shreds of a Constitution trampled and torn by Republican elephants and trying to tape that dear document back together. Such Constitutional repair may take up all of our time when we reclaim the Legislature, Congress, and the White House.
The orange one had to have explained to him why Obama left so many judge seats unfilled.
He had to have explained to him why the military can’t take military money and build that damn wall.
This clown has no idea how the constitution sez our government is supposed to work. He has no desire to learn about it, either.
And many wingnuts in DC aren’t the least bit interested in what he does or does not know as long as they can use him to push their agenda.
Trump damn well better find a lawyer and Constitutional scholar to explain how the Constitution functions. Lawyer and Constitutional scholar, did I just say President Obama?
It has always been easy to say that a president doesn’t follow the Constitution and to interpret the great old document the way you want it to fit your needs.
There is a reality here and it getting closer to hitting Trump full on. Trump is about to find out that he can’t effectively fight his legal problems through Twitter and PR firms.
Stormy. Impeachment. Emoluments Clause. Are all waiting for him.
It’s a GOP tradition to accuse any opponents of what they are guilty of.
well said Corey, Republicans break it, Dems spend all the rest of their time fixing it. We have to get ahead of this wave, in the long game. Dems lack the killer, I am proud to say, as a Dem. Capitalism accomplishes all the wealth in the hands of a few. The rest of us are slaves. Some minorities worse than others.
killer instinct
Constitution trasher’s, methinks not. “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told special counsel Robert Mueller in a classified August 2, 2017, memo that he should investigate allegations that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was “colluding with Russian government officials” to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, prosecutors in the Russia probe revealed late Monday night.
Mueller was also empowered by Rosenstein to investigate Manafort’s payments from Ukrainian politicians, a cornerstone of the Trump adviser’s decades-long lobbying career that has resulted in several financial criminal charges so far.” https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics/mueller-manafort-rosenstein-memo/index.html
Rick and the trumpians are all about trashing the United States Constitution by overriding it with the Russian Federation criminal constitution. Here we call that collusion. Which is a little word that Putin…er trump uses almost daily. trump should know all about that word as he is pretty sure he is like O.J….guilty.
Maybe we should rebrand as the Constitution Party.
Aid to the enemy is constitutional treason. The GOP changed its platform diluting military aid to Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula which Putin overran during the Sochi Olympics. Because Russia wanted it, because Trump wanted it, in contravention of the US and EU support for Crimea and sanctions on Russia.
Remember at this time SD’s Paul Erikson wrote: “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” the N.R.A. member and conservative activist Erickson saying, “He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election. Let’s talk through what has transpired and Senator Sessions’s advice on how to proceed.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/us/politics/trump-putin-russia-nra-campaign.html
Putin started (without cause) a war against Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000, wounded 25,000, and displaced one and a half million.
As Cory has covered, just a few years ago Russian Maria Butina owned a furniture store in Siberia. Now she’s wheeling and dealing with D.C. think-tankers, Republican strategists, and a Russian bank chief with alleged mob connections. Depending on the audience, Butina has presented herself as a leading gun rights advocate. Two of Butina’s friendships in particular have raised eyebrows. We know she started a Sioux Falls business with Paul Erickson, a decades-long Republican Party activist. And she served as a special assistant to the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, Alexander Torshin, a former Russian senator belonging to Vladimir Putin’s political party with ties to the Russian mob.
Makes me wonder how Joop, NSU’s international finance center, EB5 fraud and lack of republican oversight/cover for Sen. Rounds and other politicos, the tax haven offices in Sioux Falls, relate to and convince republican leaders to deny initiative/referendum, Medicaid expansion and other citizen protections against the weaponized capitalists cozy with the Koch Brothers.
Elect Billie Sutton for Governor and Tim Bjorkman for US Representative, to free us from this tangled mess.
All the leftist comments to this article seem blissfully unaware that their accusations pointed at conservatives have almost entirely consisted of the actions of the left toward the constitutionalists. They seem to have a utopian view of their belief of what the constitution really stands for. Our founding fathers in their classical liberal concepts gave us the blueprint for an exceptional government, while the present-day leftists do their best to misalign the founding fathers, the express wording of the constitution, and the intent of autonomy of the people.
What on earth ya talkin bout Joe Moore?
I am talking about all the SPECIOUS arguments put forth by the left which (I assume) they wholeheartedly believe as UPHOLDING the constitution of our Republic. All good democrats will certainly accuse me of this very same argument I have stated against them. That is a RIGHT guaranteed to them by the self-same constitution. It is called “Freedom of Speech”. I respect their right to hold and express differing opinions and would expect the same consideration of my opinions (which I believe to be facts).
Mr Moore, pray tell which Democrat came out and said our laws giving immigrants due process is dumb? Care to guess? Which Democrat wants to deprive immigrants of due process because he thinks he is king?
Some specious guy or gal no doubt…but who or whom, could this possibly be on this blog site? Old soviet? Perhaps, but you could have fooled me. I dunno mfi, that specious word is a 20 dollar word man, at least. Jason..yeah, that’s the ticket, Jason. Solved it.
The Stalker tells me that Jason’s in Denmark. It’s 2:30 am, there. Maybe he can’t sleep. :0)
However, Joe C. Moore Sr. age 83 (USN retired) lives in Lake Ariel, PA and Joe C Moore Jr. age 48 (USN retired lives in La Plate, MD.
Indeed Porter, Joe can’t even spell us’ins, so you know he is not from these parts, with that extra vowel. Geesh, that insomnia must have kicked in. Do like Roseann Barr, pop a couple of Ambien so you have something to blame it on.
Well, I can’t spell La Plata, MD so I understand. DFP blog reaches out to the East Coast on posts that originated on April Fools Day? Fascinating …
It’s probably the younger Joe. He looks like one of Jason’s Nat’l Guard friends that’s going to Denmark with him. Constitutional fundamentalist, it seems.
Maybe tail gunner Joe, revisited.
Joseph Moore appears to have seen the headline and charged in with some boilerplate about “leftists” without reading the actual post, in which I make clear my case, with examples of specific South Dakota legislation, of Democrats’ adherence to pretty basic interpretations of First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights versus Republicans’ trampling of those rights.
I await Moore’s return to address those specifics and align them with his opening critique.
Cory,
Do you need me to link you to the democrats saying free speech should be curtailed?
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate-intel-russia-interfered-2016-election-preferred-trump-over-clinton
I just had to throw that in. I’ll bet the Senate ill find collusion between Drumpf and Putin unlike the House of running interference for Drumpf that didn’y bother looking for any.
Mike
The US preferred Trump over Clinton also. I guess you are saying the US colluded with Russia.
Jason, HRC got 3 million more votes than did Putin’s Puppet. Who did the US prefer?
You are a total delusional denier.
The US preferred Trump. That’s why he won the Electoral College.
No, Jason, you and Joseph Moore need to show me that the concrete South Dakota examples I show above are invalid.
Notice that I give you three specific Republican bills that infringe on freedom of speech.
Mike is right. American voters preferred Sec. Clinton. A minority and droomps best buddy, Putie, preferred droomps. (I thinks it’s hilarious that his German relatives try to pretend they’re not.😂😂😂😂😂)
@Debbo … I sent your NYTimes article to a friend who lives in The Netherlands near the German border not far from Kallstadt. She thought that was the funniest thing. :0)
I guess you are saying the US colluded with Russia. Only you and pathological lying buddy Drumpf make that claim, Jason. The people in position to know say Drumpf and Putie colluded to get Putin’s Puppet installed as bogus potus. Get used to it. Drumpf and you are illegitimate wingnuts and are going down. And all of Drumpf’s illegitimate decisions will be overturned.