Constitutionalism
Nov. 3rd, 2006 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Anybody out there familiar with this party/movement/group? Until recently, I was blissfully unaware of them. But one of the men running for sheriff in my county calls himself a constitutionalist, and the man is very scary. So I'm trying to find more out. I found a Constitutionalist Manifesto, which really does very little to ease my nervousness. (http://www.eagleforum.org/court_watch/alerts/2003/may03/Manifesto.shtml)
Constant repitition of "properly interpreted" in relation to anything makes me think that whoever's writing or saying it has already made up their mind what they want it to mean and you're not gonna change it, whether they've actually read it or not.
Anyway, the bloke running for sheriff here apparently interprets it to mean that the constitution is the end all and be all of law in this country, and if it's not in the constitution it's not a real law. For example--one of my friends works at the jail. The man running for sheriff was pulled over for some traffic violation (i'm not sure what), and arrested because he had no drivers license. (Doesn't say anything about drivers licenses in the constitution you know.) Once to the jail, he refused to cooperate with fingerprinting, resisted turning over the contents of his pockets to the booking officials, threatened to sue them when they wrote him a check for the amount of cash he had on hand (so that they could put the cash away and not risk it wandering off with someone else).
And now he's running for sheriff. SHERIFF, for crissakes! The person who's supposed to be in charge of law enforcement for the county. And his ads all say things about the responsibility of the sheriff is to put law enforcement back where it belongs--in the hands of the citizens, and to "assist" citizens in enforcing the law--I can't remember the exact phrasing, but the gist is that it's not the sheriff's job to bust criminals, it's my job to find them and drag them down to his deputies.
Needless to say, I'm voting against him...but the whole thing is just freakish and scary.
Constant repitition of "properly interpreted" in relation to anything makes me think that whoever's writing or saying it has already made up their mind what they want it to mean and you're not gonna change it, whether they've actually read it or not.
Anyway, the bloke running for sheriff here apparently interprets it to mean that the constitution is the end all and be all of law in this country, and if it's not in the constitution it's not a real law. For example--one of my friends works at the jail. The man running for sheriff was pulled over for some traffic violation (i'm not sure what), and arrested because he had no drivers license. (Doesn't say anything about drivers licenses in the constitution you know.) Once to the jail, he refused to cooperate with fingerprinting, resisted turning over the contents of his pockets to the booking officials, threatened to sue them when they wrote him a check for the amount of cash he had on hand (so that they could put the cash away and not risk it wandering off with someone else).
And now he's running for sheriff. SHERIFF, for crissakes! The person who's supposed to be in charge of law enforcement for the county. And his ads all say things about the responsibility of the sheriff is to put law enforcement back where it belongs--in the hands of the citizens, and to "assist" citizens in enforcing the law--I can't remember the exact phrasing, but the gist is that it's not the sheriff's job to bust criminals, it's my job to find them and drag them down to his deputies.
Needless to say, I'm voting against him...but the whole thing is just freakish and scary.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-04 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-04 01:50 am (UTC)"otherwise, individual states govern laws the way they see fit" or osomething like that. each state has it's own constition as well, or in Lousiana's case a Napolienic code. He might not have broken the federal law, but the local and state law was violated.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-04 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 02:15 am (UTC)It's the inititives and referendums and constitutional addendums that I actually care about.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 02:47 am (UTC)Wow. Sounds like this Hartley woman'd be interesting to know.
I honestly don't know what party the nut-job's competition (the incumbent) is... I voted for him mostly because mediocrity's better than assininity (if that's not a word, it should be).
yeah, i vote on those even if i don't vote all the people.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 03:11 am (UTC)She's the only Berkley educated, New York Intellectual Feminist porn star that I know of.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 03:13 am (UTC)