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After the Patriot Act became law, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) began a national campaign to get cities, counties and states to stand up for the Constitution.
Thanks to the determined efforts of this small but remarkably effective group, more than 400 communities and eight states have passed resolutions declaring their support for restoring protections guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution.
The BORDC is still fighting the good fight. This week, the Massachusetts-based group i sounding the alarm against congressional moves to undermine 4th amendment privacy rights.
But the BORDC is not satisfied to simply play defense.
"At BORDC, we know many of our subscribers are outraged at the number of times their legislators have given in to fear mongering and supported freedom-robbing legislation because they believe voters are willing to give up their freedoms for a promise (a hollow promise!) of greater security," BORDC director Nancy Talanian and her colleagues explain.
"Responding to Congress's ongoing unconstitutional actions can often feel tiring and ineffective. Join the People's Campaign for the Constitution so that together the grassroots can set our government's agenda and hold our government accountable to the constitutional principles upon which it was founded."
The People's Campaign for the Constitution seeks to bring together all groups and individuals -- right and left, Republican and Democrat, Libertarian and Green, independent and partisan -- who are concerned about renewing the rule of law to a country where it has been severely threatened by executive arrogance and legislative lethargy. "Fighting against one violation at a time fragments our movement," the BORDC says. "It is time to unite to face the common source of these problems."
Something of a national debut will come July 4, when Bill of Rights Defense Committee plans to purchase a half-page advertisement in the New York Times to sound the call for Constitutional renewal. I've signed on and I hope that readers of The Nation will join in this essential effort to raise the profile of our struggle to renew civil liberties in a time of warrantless wiretapping, torture, signing statements and all the other evidences of kingly arrogance in the executive branch of what is supposed to be a republic.
To learn more about how you can support this new declaration of faith in America's founding principles, visit the committee's Web site and sign on for the Constitution.
John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written The Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
15 Comments so far
Show AllThe Bill of Rights was a concession that was forced on the Federalists (with a few exceptions) in order to get enough votes to ratify an unpopular Constitution that centralized federal power in a way similar to King-in-Parliament. We had just fought a war to get rid of that. The Federalist/K-in-P types are, obviously, still around and more reactionary than ever. They've gotten especially obnoxious since the rise of corporations which, it should be noted, originated through state governments. You can read about the evils of democracy at www.aei.org, home of the Iraq War architects. They're like Mussolini with brains --
Besides, who needs the stinking Constitution (really stinking now)when we have the Ten Commandments - Just ask Pluckistani Pete, he'll tell you!
canuckchuck June 27th, 2008 1:49 pm -
We can't burn the Constitution yet, as Bush has not finished tearing it into small pieces and wiping his ass with it!
Actually, the "shooting and eating" suggestion is pretty good-- especially with the liberated, loose and sassy new Second Amendment in play!
Damn. This is a hell of a time to have lost one's taste for Democrat!
Until we reign in corporate power all else is futile. It would be nice if the disparate groups came together and gave us our constitution back but that would be just a start.
We will never get a fair tax structure, an election where a third party candidate can pose a real threat, or any rational reform of our crime/punishment system until the power of the corporations is broken.
The first step is legislation stating that no, a corporation does not possess the rights of an individual. Then the Supreme Court decision that money is "free speech" has to be either overturned or legislated out of existence. Until these things happen all else is spitting in the wind.
RichM June
"The object is not to "reach out" to these people and make nice with them — it's to defeat them."
And then what? Shoot and eat them?
No wonder the politics in this country is divided. There is no common ground, no "Common Dreams", just my way or the high way. Tell the truth, you are really Ann Coulter aren't you?
What gives with Nichols? For at least a few months over the past few years, he was all about impeachment. He even went to the trouble of writing a book about it. But since Kucinich introduced his 35 articles of impeachment against bu$h on June 9, Nichols hasn't found one moment to write anything about it, opting instead for enomiums to Russert and Carlin, and pieces on the never-ending 2008 presidential election (a subject that dare it be said, there are no shortage of journalists pursuing). But Kucinich's articles get a genuine media blackout in the MSM, and Nichols can't spare even the slightest bit of column space to come to his aid? Don't tell me the CHENEY/bush goon squad has gotten to him too and silenced his pen! Tragic.
The Constitution was written in secret to "promote the domestic tranquility," that is to develop a unified national response to the uprising by the public known as Shays' rebellion. Its purpose was to ensure that "responsible persons," that is property owners (and property included slaves) would remain in charge of government through great obstacles preventing rule by the majority, those victimized by property owners. The Constitution was passed easily in states where voting was limited to those in possession of certain amounts of property. It failed in states where the popular vote was mandated by ten to one against. While the Articles of Confederation would have required unanimous endorsement by the states to impose the Constitution, the Constitution itself changed the rules to require only nine states for ratification. In states where the issue could not be speedily decided, supporters of the Constitution kidnapped state delegates and held them under duress until the document was approved. The Bill of Rights was included to make it clear that individual rights, that is property rights, were to be protected against both the public and the government.
We do not need a return to the Constitution. The imperial national security state of today is exactly what was sought by the Framers. We need to revitalize Shays' Rebellion to live up to the real principles of America!
The article contains a typical bit of Class-A liberal claptrap: "...The People's Campaign for the Constitution seeks to bring together all groups and individuals — right and left, Republican and Democrat, Libertarian and Green, independent and partisan — who are concerned about renewing the rule of law...."
Reading stuff like this makes me want to throw up. It's almost a parody of how writers at The Nation often speak. The idea that you can "bring together" all these disparate groups is weak-minded liberal hogwash. Liberals like to pretend that "we all basically want the same thing," and that we should strive to "unite all groups, left and right..." etc, around some noble-sounding principle. Liberals want to ignore the role of class interests in determining political positions.
The truth is that if you are a Republican, you are an enemy of the public's well-being. And if you are a Democrat (like almost everyone at The Nation), you support a party that's complicit in everything that the rightwing does. There is no such thing as a good rightwinger, & the Party of Collaborators is not much better. Let's stop pretending that we want to "reach out" to our enemies, & frolick merrily with them as we dance happily around the Maypole. They want to enslave us, rob us blind, & oppress us -- that's what being on the political Right is all about. The object is not to "reach out" to these people and make nice with them -- it's to defeat them.
hazmat, yeah, maybe you had not noticed in the latest news cycle, but Obama has met with all the inside the belt way types, corporate execs, nodding in agreement with Rick Wagnor (yesterday) the CEO of GM, other status quo Democratic Governors, and other Clinton recycles like Mad Albright, to name a few; but strangely enough, I have not seen any truly progressive people sharing a seat at Obama's 'so called' inclusive table like Kucinich, Nader, Moyers, Hedges, and radical environmentalists like McKibben, Dave Foreman, etc... nevertheless, I can appreciate the cynicism, if that is what you intended.
Our Constitution was written to guide and build a country. The Constitution is now the property of corporate America. And they want to use it to globalize the world. Empire expansion wasn't in the minds of the founding fathers, it was a country they were planning. The only way to get the Constitution back into the hands of the people is for the Congress to stand up and take back all the authority presidents have been stealing from them and put this country back on the path of becoming a great country. Unfortunately our current Congress lacks, except for DK, the intestinal fortitude to be a patriot and do what is right for America. We've already lost the Magna Carta and habeas corpus. Without a Constitution we will become a totalitarian state. Fascism is always the last stage of an empire. Welcome to the end.
Hoa binh
I was always under the misguided impression that the US Constitution was the supreme law of the USA....
apperantly it's just a GD piece of paper.
Why not just burn the damn thing?
Huck, Huck, Huck...
didn't you know that saint obama has a secret plan to reveal himself as the fire-breathing radical he really is after he wins in november?
Yawn. The Democrats and Republicans have been taking away our rights, freedoms, and diminishing the Earth community of beings for decades. If you want to read something truly insightful about the 'system' scroll down to CHris Hedges article on Hedonistic Power. Otherwise, you can keep reading this tripe that ignores 'why' and the 'why' is becuase we have a SINGLE Party entity.
The "bill of rights" was intended to be primarily a "bill of no-no's" that is to say it tells all levels of bureaucratic government what they cannot do to any person anywhere in the world. A succession of power-grabbing presidents, perhaps beginning with Jackson has changed the bill to a "bill of jokes." The Bush administration is just the latest albeit quite active changer.