Depending on who you ask, the Constitution is either a living document, open to interpretation and adaptable to the times we live in, or a rigid framework that dictates slaves count as 3/5th of a person for purposes of determining Congressional representation.
If you're a Republican, particularly of the Tea Party variety, you've probably somehow managed to construct a magical world in which the Constitution is both.
Though an incredible document, the Constitution is one that has in the past needed amending and certainly one that doesn't necessarily provide all the answers to the complex world in which we live. The people who wrote it certainly realized this when they changed it almost immediately after it was written to protect our freedoms. That "Bill of Rights" protects our most basic liberties, and to Republicans, is rock solid on the issue of freedom of religion except when it comes to mosques in New York, and yet still open to interpretation when it comes to bearing arms.
As originally penned, the Constitution created the basis for the greatest nation ever, but it certainly wasn't perfect. Slaves were mentioned frequently and counted among the population as their subhuman condition dictated and women had the same voting rights as cows.
The authors recognized that the Constitution would need amending which is why they not only made it possible to do so but did so themselves.
Now we're facing the prospect of it being amended again, this time out of fear and xenophobia. In the past when we've changed the Constitution, we've done it to guarantee rights and protect people. Take for example, the Bill of Rights, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments abolishing slavery and granting citizenship and rights to former slaves, and the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Most people would agree these were good changes. Most people. Enter Republicans.
Apparently Republicans do not agree that all of these were good changes. The 14th Amendment in particular has drawn scrutiny as it guarantees citizenship to anyone born on American soil, thus leading to the derogatory term "anchor babies" for the children of illegal immigrants who become American citizens. The term stems from the idea that by having these children, illegal immigrants will be able to stay here permanently and become citizens. Like many things Republicans have to say this is a lie. Children cannot sponsor their parents for citizenship until they're 21 years old, so if an illegal immigrant is hoping to acquire citizenship by having a child, it's quite a long term investment.
Republicans don't have time for that inconvenient truth, but they do have what appears to be a healthy dose of racial prejudice. Republicans are out to take the 14th Amendment down because, according to Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) "We're saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It's what in our souls."
Duncan's right, it does take more than walking across the border. You actually have to be born here. I also didn't realize the guy was a spiritual man who can peer inside us and find the difference between the souls of brown-skinned people born in Mexico and white-skinned people born in the United States. What a gift!
This dismissible silliness, fear-mongering and xenophobia is the kind of spew that undermines America at home and abroad. How fortunate that the Statue of Liberty isn't in Arizona, the exemplar of intolerance.
The very people who purport to be beholden to our Constitution openly flaunt their hypocrisy. The 2nd Amendment, one of their favorites, guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. When it was written that meant flintlock muskets, today apparently it means assault rifles with fingerprint-proof triggers. This right is bullet proof. The 14th Amendment however needs fixing. You see how this works? These people are actually picking and choosing which parts of the document they support and are somehow doing it under the guise of the Constitutional infallibility. How they've gotten anyone to buy into this ludicrous act is beyond me.
And so the Republican Party, who will be holding a reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives - a symbolically farcical move - will at least get to chew on the hypocrisy of sticking rigidly to the document when they feel it benefits them politically and finding it open to interpretation when it means deporting people.
The Constitution and our country deserve better than the hypocrisy these people have to offer.
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