Wednesday, July 05, 2017


Did NPR tweet out our primary secessionist document on July 4 for the years 2009-2016? Of course they didn't.  They are trolling Trump and his supporters and feigning innocence. They tweeted it rather than simply reading or discussing it in the hopes of catching people with the out-of-context 140-character sections. They didn't (and won't) tweet the Constitution, they chose a document of a specific political act and context, which refers to a foreign ruler. The principles in it do indeed apply to every subsequent age, including ours, and every president and party in power should read it and tremble. NPR has the right to make these points and connect them to the present day. In fact, somebody should every year. They just don't have the right to pretend otherwise, selling the idea that they were merely doing their usual patriotic celebration by tweeting out the Declaration of Independence, when these ridiculous Others took it entirely the wrong way.

That said, some Trump supporters and conservatives - groups with some overlap - were trolled effectively. They might not recognise fragments of the Declaration as they go by, but they should have been suspicious of the the slightly-archaic wording and vocabulary, and they should have smelled a rat. This seems related to the Premature Expostulation that Bethany has been talking about and it's lead-in essay. A moment's googling of any of the tweets would have revealed the truth. They got taken in and deserve their ridicule. I will grant them this, though.  They did penetrate the real intent and responded to it. Just not effectively.


Sam L. said...

As I generally ignore NPR, could you tell me more about this, with links? I am not understanding what I'm reading.

Christopher B said...


Have to part company with you here. The Declaration quite specifically addresses the situtation where a group of people are denied representation in the government, and especially representative deliberative bodies, that claim a right to rule over them. While this is certainly the way the #Resistance, including NPR, likes thinks of itself, their estimation of the situation has no mooring in the reality that we are still a democratic republic, and their extended temper tantrum is doing more harm to the legitimacy of our process of governemnt than Trump's tweets.

Boxty said...

Sam L, Google "npr declaration of independence twitter" and you'll find boatloads of lefty websites writing about this. Tempest in a teacup given that about a third of the country apparently didn't know Biden was the Vice President under Obama. Democrats control the education industry so they should be reflecting on their failure to educate rather than mocking people on Twitter.

Christopher B, at least one prominent voice on the alt-right, Vox Day, says we are a post-constitutional republic. The Constitution has been dead for at least a decade IMO, but I think Vox would go back much further. Dennis Prager says we are in a cold Civil War and I tend to agree. Vox Day puts the collapse of America at 2033, right around when I should be retiring. :(

Thomas Doubting said...

Well, situation is not principles. The situation doesn't apply, but the principles that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, etc., do.

I think FDR wrecked the Constitution. He was allowed, in his 4 terms, to pick 8 out of 9 USSC justices, and they began ruling in ways that went against the text of the document.

The history of the Commerce Clause is informative. Before FDR, the Commerce Clause was held to mean that Congress could not regulate the manufacture of goods, since manufacture took place within the boundaries of a state. So, it took a constitutional amendment to enact Prohibition. During FDR's time, his USSC ruled that manufacture AFFECTED interstate commerce, so Congress could regulate it, going against more than a century of precedent. Hence, we didn't need an amendment to ban growing marijuana.

Since then, the USSC has had a much wider scope to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate the Constitution.