Constitutionalism

[draggonlaady]

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.

Comments

[tmercenary.livejournal.com]

yes, I have heard of them. Unless this guy can be very charming, his chances are pretty slim. Most people in this party are nut jobs. They are right about one thing, the Constitution over seeds local laws. however they ignore the fact that the founders set a very lose set of rules so that the states could govern themselves, and that the Constitution only need be used when a local law was in violation of said document. (tyerw8se states were s7009se t9 jaie aoo tye r7oes tyejseovesl If they want to aruge their case, they should realize the original intent wasn't a federalist nation, but a confederation of states with a common currency formed into a repulic for large issues to be addressed.

[sir-orfeo.livejournal.com]

Which is, well, scary and hilarius at the same time. Kinda like when Hunter S. Thompson (Dr. Gonzo) ran for Sheriff, and almost won. I doubt that this guy is as intelligent or as funny as Thompson was though.