The neo-fascist Republican plan to rewrite the US Constitution

A few weeks ago I posted as discussion about an ongoing effort to get two-thirds (34) of state legislatures to call for an article 5 Constitutional Convention. Amendments would need to be ratified by three-fourths (38) of states to take effect. That effort is mostly driven by liberals and moderates. The purpose is to amend the US Constitution to make corruption illegal in politics again. Special interest corruption had been significantly outlawed by laws that congress passed. But over the years radical conservative Republicans on the Supreme Courts have neutered those laws, often on grounds of free speech and a belief that corporations are people with constitutional rights. American politics has returned to a high level corruption by modern day neo-fascist Republicans. They are hell-bent on corrupting and subverting the federal government for their own neo-fascist ends, mainly power and wealth.

At present, Republican Christian nationalists on the Supreme Courts are busily and happily in the process of neutering laws that keep state and church separated, often on grounds of free speech and free exercise, but that is a different, complicated topic. This post is about the broad vision of what Republican laissez-faire capitalists and fundamentalist Christian nationalists want to do to America. This vision is not new to the last 5 years or so. At least parts of the modern radical right vision of America has been brewing at least since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools. Conservative elites hated that decision and most of them seem to have been seething with rage ever since.

The Republican plan for America

There is another effort to force an Article 5 convention by states. This one is by conservatives with some non-conservatives also supporting it. The point of that convention would be to force a balanced budget amendment into the US Constitution. Although the radical right is not uniform in what it wants, the general contours of what they want to do to America is clear. Among other bad things, the neo-fascists want to neuter democracy, respect for inconvenient truth and a government that effectively defends the public interest. Those things have got to go. The radical right movement has already seriously damaged democracy and government defense of the public interest defense. It has almost completely obliterated respect for inconvenient truth. Just listen to some Fox News or go to major radical right propaganda and lies sites like Gateway Pundit to get a feel for how Republican neo-fascists mistreat truth.   

One vision of what the Republicans want is encapsulated in the something it calls the Liberty Amendments. The neo-fascist author and pundit Mark Levin articulated the Liberty Amendments in his widely read book, The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic. Levin is a real hard core and prominent in the modern neo-fascist Republican movement. His rhetoric makes his poisonous feelings about Democrats and liberalism clear, e.g., this recent blast at Biden on Fox News. Wikipedia summarized the Liberty Amendments that radical right Republicans want put in the US Constitution:

• Impose Congressional term limits
• Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment, returning the election of Senators to state legislatures
• Impose term limits for Supreme Court Justices and restrict judicial review
• Require a balanced budget and limit federal spending and taxation
• Define a deadline to file taxes (one day before the next federal election)
• Subject federal departments and bureaucratic regulations to periodic reauthorization and review
• Create a more specific definition of the Commerce Clause
• Limit eminent domain powers
• Allow states to more easily amend the Constitution by bypassing Congress
• Create a process where two-thirds of the states can nullify federal laws
• Require photo ID to vote and limit early voting

In  those amendments, on can clearly see the influence of laissez-faire capitalism and hostility to voters having power and easy access to voting. These amendments weaken the federal government’s ability to protect people and their civil liberties and they transfer enormous power from the federal government to businesses and the states. For example, by narrowing the definition of the Commerce Clause, the federal government would lose power to regulate much, maybe most, interstate commerce, freeing companies from all associated regulations. 

Depending on how it is worded, an amendment(s) that restricts the scope of judicial review could neuter the ability of federal courts to decide what is constitutional and what isn’t and what kind of lawsuits the court could even hear. There are disputes that federal courts dislike even accepting, e.g., political disputes, and the scope of what courts could take could be narrowed enormously. In essence, federal courts could be rendered almost powerless, leaving the newly unleashed power free to flow to congress, the president, the states and/or businesses. The laissez-faire capitalists in the Republican crowd want that power to flow to themselves, where they will be free to quietly kill it to empower businesses, while pretending to do so in service to the public interest. 

Limiting government eminent domain power transfers power from federal, state and local governments to property owners. That has been a libertarian and hard core capitalist dream for years. Subjecting federal departments and bureaucratic regulations to periodic reauthorization is a great way to slowly get rid of federal departments and bureaucratic regulations, one at a time. First cut off regulations, then when not much is left to do, eliminate the federal agency. Neo-fascist Republicans are dead serious about shrinking most pro-consumer and pro-environment aspect of government into insignificance. What would be left mostly untouched would be our gigantic military and its budget and federal courts and law enforcement. The latter would be used to vigorously persecute political opposition and dissent. 

What may not appear to be a major presence in the Liberty Amendments is gifts to Christian nationalism. Nonetheless, Christian nationalism can be well served by amendments like these. For example, if the scope of what federal courts can even consider is neutered, church-state disputes could disappear or be left for religion to decide what is legal and what isn’t. We all know what that would lead to, i.e., massive flows of tax dollars from the US Treasury to churches and religious elites. Religion would be mostly free to rape and plunder the American people at will, while openly and legally discriminating against groups that fundamentalist Christianity hates, e.g., non-heterosexuals, atheists and other non-Christians, and racial and ethnic minorities. Christian elites would get their tons of flesh.

In earlier comments at the post about the liberal Article 5 convention, PD made these comments about the Liberty Amendments:

As far as an Article 5 Convention goes, there is much to fear as a long-term plan supported by as many as 28 Republican state legislatures awaits the right moment to trigger just that in the name of a Balanced Budget Amendment. That, in turn, would open the floor to tinkering with the Constitution in any number of possible ways. Republicans know this and many of them would be coming well-prepared with 11 “Liberty Amendments” that would lock anti-democratic governance in place with ominous finality. 

Charles Koch and ALEC (among others) have been nurturing this plan for decades, and it is highly organized unlike the much more inchoate progressive versions of A5 attempts aimed at overturning Citizens United, and other ideas. These don’t have the support of nearly enough states to kick off an A5 convention, and even if they did such amendments would almost certainly fail to gain the approval of 3/4th of the states. In a much more possible future, though, the GOP just might pull such a thing off, as the BBA has gotten as close as 29 states recently (it’s now down to 28 of the needed 34). Among other reasons, they have support from some 

“Blue Dog Democrats” (see NCPSSM link below).

So what are some of the troubling Liberty Amendments that are lined up and ready for discussion should a convention be called? First articulated in the 2013 book, The Liberty Amendments, by the now-Trump-supporting lawyer, far right radio host and Fox pundit, Mike Levin, they include (among others):

- The Balanced Budget Amendment, which is much more than a 

“fiscally conservative” matter. It might sound good to center-right budget hawks until it becomes clear that to balance the budget they would be kissing social security and medicare, along with various other social programs goodbye. 

- Repeal the 17th Amendment of 1913, which gives us the right to elect senators rather than having them appointed by state legislatures as was the case (though few know this) until the 1918 election. That is, Republicans would now appoint their own Senators eliminating that irritating thing called democratic elections, reverting to the elitism of the 1787 Constitution in a 21st C context. Of course, the long-term Republican stealth plan of people such as Charles Koch has been to make sure that at the state level, the GOP has racked up victory after victory, so that right now 30 state legislatures are Republican to 17 which are Democratic. The same care has been given for decades to using these legislatures to appoint far right judges in these states.

-Amend the constitution to make it easier for States to amend the constitution in the future in a way that circumvents Congress. (Is this what State-Rights has come to mean?)

-Limit mail-in and early voting and require photo IDs, thus suppressing the vote while this effort is complemented by gerrymandering well under way.

- Require Fed Depts. and their regulations to be periodically reviewed and reauthorizied: That is, amend the constitution in such a way that Federal Departments like the EPA, Health and Human Services, Dept. of Ed., Housing and Urban Develop., and others, would require periodic “reauthorization and review,” along with the regulations they establish.

- Amend Constitution so that 2/3 of states can nullify federal laws (states rights to nullify desegregation laws after Brown v Board, and more recently to nullify Affordable Care Act have been rejected by the Supreme Ct., so this would help to get around that).

While right now the GOP is short of 2/3rd (34) of the states signing on to the Balanced Budget Amendment (which would kick off the convention opening it to discuss these widely supported Liberty Amendments), it is a long term stealth-plan that has paid dividends in shifting the balance of state legislatures decisively to the Right. Who can say it won’t succeed given what we’ve seen in recent years? And it would lock in much of the anti-democratic policy already being put in place as I write and in recent years. Meanwhile, Dems are much less united (heck, some of them even support this BBA triggering an A5 Convention). Progressive proposals to call a constitution, like the one calling for an Am. to overturn Citizens United.

Here is a link to the Watchdog group Common Cause on this topic, revised 4/21. And a NYT article from 2016. Finally, a short clip of an interview with Nancy MacClean (author of Democracy in Chains) on this topic taken from Bill Maher Show. It’s short but to the point.

What stands between the neo-fascist Republican vision for America and those constitutional amendments is the requirement that 38 (three-fourths) states ratify the amendments. At present, there aren’t 38 states that would go that far. But what that means is that the Republican Party, its major capitalist donors, and its Christian nationalist cadres will all keep working to get more states on board with as much of the radical right agenda as they can. This Republican Party political movement is well-funded, professional, disciplined, patient, and persistent. 

If the elites behind this awful threat cannot get what they want this year, they will try for next year. If not this decade, then next decade. This war will not end. The elite capitalists, authoritarians, bigots and Christian zealots will not give up and they will not settle for compromise. They want it all. Specifically, they want essentially as  much power and wealth as they can get without people rising up and rebelling. 

What most average people will get from the neo-fascist Republican Party vision for America is a kick in the pants and oppression. Few will be rewarded and most those few will be hard core neo-fascist Republicans.