Commentary by Community Rights US Director Paul Cienfuegos: It’s not that we disagree with the idea that conservatives have captured the meaning of our (second) US Constitution, and that progressives also need their own interpretation to further their political objectives. But we believe that the author of this Opinion piece in The Guardian has overlooked a much more significant story.
Regardless of how you interpret the Constitution, any honest analysis would have to admit that it was primarily designed as a document enshrining the rights of property and commerce as the nation’s greatest good! Most US’ians forget today that the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments) was an add-on, that mostly came years later, in response to general outrage from “the rabble” (i.e the general public) about what was missing in our (second) Constitution – RIGHTS for ALL people.
So if progressives (or honest conservatives) are going to affect meaningful change in our nation’s highest law, it’s going to take a lot more than simply interpreting the words through a progressive lens, because property rights trumping all other rights means just what it says and can’t be reinterpreted as progressive. What this nation needs is a new Constitution, from top to bottom, one that enshrines the rights of We the People, regardless of who owns property and who does not. (And because business corporations both own property and are themselves considered property, their rights also now trump the rights of The People.)
True democracy flourishes only when local community majorities have the legal authority to protect their health, safety and welfare under law – from harms caused by corporations and by governments – something which is currently prohibited because of state preemption, Dillon’s Rule, and corporate constitutional so-called “rights”. A truly pro-democracy constitution would abolish those three structures of law because they violate The People’s right of local community self-government, which was what the American Revolution was all about. So let’s look way beyond the idea of a progressive reinterpretation of our existing constitution, and instead imagine an entirely new Constitution. Anything less is mere tinkering around the edges.
Here’s the Opinion piece in The Guardian, written by Erwin Chemerinsky:
Over the course of American history, there have been great gains in individual freedom and enormous advances in equality for racial minorities, women, and LGBT people. But much remains to be done. Unfortunately, we are now at a profoundly challenging moment for these values. We have a president who is not committed to them, and for the foreseeable future we face the prospect of a hostile supreme court.
But all this will change. Someday there again will be a majority on the court committed to using the constitution to advance liberty and equality. In the meantime, progressives must fight to provide the foundation for their work. In particular, they must develop and defend an alternative to the conservative vision of the US constitution. MORE…