Part of what I see with 50501/Hands Off protests is that they have a theme of “defending the Constitution” from Trump. This is really a somewhat conservative position and doesn’t have much historical rigor to it.
Prof. Aziz Rana of Boston College Law School is having a moment on Jacobin Radio right now. His basic thesis is that the Constitutional order is so deeply antidemocratic that the left argued with itself and the liberals over whether to focus efforts on challenging it in the early 20th Century. In the broad sweep of history since then, Americans have come to view the Constitution as a sacred text, but in fact, that order is part of what gives the Republicans and the far right their advantages despite losing the popular vote.
The shorter interview: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S250424 (April 24, 2025)
The 4-part long interview: https://thedigradio.com/archive/ (see the Aziz Rana episodes starting in April 2025) - Part 4 isn’t up yet.
So why should we venerate the Constitution, when it holds us back from real, direct democracy? I think part of what our liberal friends and family hold onto is a trust in the Constitution and the framers. They weren’t geniuses, they were landowners worried about kings taking their property. Use these interviews, or Prof. Rana’s book, to handle those arguments.
Maybe for you. It seemed perfectly coherent to the people that upvoted it. Slow down and read. It’s good for you. I’m being completely serious about that, I was aiming to make a serious point that broadly is in complete agreement with the “a piece of paper won’t do shit to protect you and even what’s written on the paper is seriously flawed in important ways” people.
Honestly not in the slightest. I’m sort of short on patience because of the number of people in this thread who seem to have their thinker miswired and their yeller turned up too high, but that’s nothing to do with this conversation.
I would still love it if you told me what you meant by code-word. I do a lot of reading on a daily basis and I am not reading your lemmy comment a third time just to decipher your meaning.
Absolutely! So, talking about the importance of “the constitution” is a common phrasing for principles that are under deadly attack right now, that you can use which will engage the support of a massive range of people including among them conservatives, liberals, leftists, military people, police, lawyers, judges, and so on. And, using it in that way will not in any way interfere with reforming the problems with it, or indicate to people that we need to go back to having slavery or other atrocities that were codified into it. It’s a way to rally support for things that need support rallied for them right now. Letting protestors out of jail. Not sending anyone to concentration camps. Stopping ICE from busting in people’s houses and terrorizing them. People can get mobilized to oppose that, even if our current constitutional system needs significant reform to be sustainable in any way.
Beyond the current crisis, what this country actually needs is a massive people movement to get the crooks and tyrants out of government. Trump didn’t invent any of those problems or even close to, but if him trying to have the government kill everybody who looks at him funny or gets in his way is what it takes to get that reform going, let’s fucking take advantage and accomplish some things, lord knows we need it.