Symmetric Chaos
Someone recently told me that what makes Ron Paul a "strict constitutionalist" is that he does not interpret the text, he does exactly what it says. I found this notion bizarre and pointed out that you have to interpret the things you read. Anyway later I went and looked at the Bill of Right to see what would happen if we tried putting this idea into practice.
1st Amendment
Only Congress is forbidden from doing things there. State government, judges, and executive orders are all legal ways to (say) establish a state religion . . . if you're a strict constitutionalist.
2nd Amendment
It uses the phrase "shall not be infringed" when talk about keeping and bearing arms. So I wonder about prisons. There's no qualifier there about that. So from a strict constitutionalist standpoint we have to either let criminals keep guns while in prison or declare them to either not be people or not be citizens.
3rd
This is where the "right to privacy" comes from a claim that is wholly an reinterpretation of the text and would have to be discarded
8th
A strict constitutionalist can't interpret that bit about "cruel and unusual punishment" so I suppose everything would be on the table again?
If you take that claim seriously you end up with a very strange legal system, is what I'm saying, one that I sort of doubt Ron Paul is advocating. I had a pastor once who pointed out the same thing about the Bible, half the time it doesn't even make sense to claim that you're following it "literally".
This isn't specific to Ron Paul, though I spend a lot of time on the internet so it's his backers I usually hear it from. The second biggest group seems to be New Agers and religious types who phrase it as "I don't believe, I know". It's a very odd mindset. The belief that not only are you right but that you're fundamentally right and the way you know is specifically because you aren't thinking about it.
I mean that was literally the problem the person I was talking to had with everyone who wasn't Ron Paul, they think about the constitution while he blindly obeys. The idea that Paul might read the document and then have to decide what it meant just produced anger.
1st Amendment
Only Congress is forbidden from doing things there. State government, judges, and executive orders are all legal ways to (say) establish a state religion . . . if you're a strict constitutionalist.
2nd Amendment
It uses the phrase "shall not be infringed" when talk about keeping and bearing arms. So I wonder about prisons. There's no qualifier there about that. So from a strict constitutionalist standpoint we have to either let criminals keep guns while in prison or declare them to either not be people or not be citizens.
3rd
This is where the "right to privacy" comes from a claim that is wholly an reinterpretation of the text and would have to be discarded
8th
A strict constitutionalist can't interpret that bit about "cruel and unusual punishment" so I suppose everything would be on the table again?
If you take that claim seriously you end up with a very strange legal system, is what I'm saying, one that I sort of doubt Ron Paul is advocating. I had a pastor once who pointed out the same thing about the Bible, half the time it doesn't even make sense to claim that you're following it "literally".
This isn't specific to Ron Paul, though I spend a lot of time on the internet so it's his backers I usually hear it from. The second biggest group seems to be New Agers and religious types who phrase it as "I don't believe, I know". It's a very odd mindset. The belief that not only are you right but that you're fundamentally right and the way you know is specifically because you aren't thinking about it.
I mean that was literally the problem the person I was talking to had with everyone who wasn't Ron Paul, they think about the constitution while he blindly obeys. The idea that Paul might read the document and then have to decide what it meant just produced anger.