I just spoke with Michael Openshaw, a member of the North Texas Tea Party. Because I couldn’t fit his comments into my story, I thought I’d add them here. Like other tea partiers, Openshaw takes a pass on the constitutional question — “I’d leave that to constitutional lawyers” — but jumps at the chance to reprimand President Obama for his recent behavior: “You launch a war and go off to Rio?”
More interesting, however, were his comments on the prospect of a Tea Party protest of the Libya campaign. “To go out and publicly rally while our service people’s lives are on the line is not something we’re willing to do,” Openshaw says. “We respect them too much — not the so-called commander-in-chief. You will not see us out there waving signs.” For more tea partiers’ reactions to the military effort, see here.
Why would an otherwise intelligent fella feel compelled to defer to "constitutional scholars" on the issue of war powers?
This highlights a MAJOR problem. Too many American citizens have been convinced by the legal academy and society that they are unqualified to interpret for themselves what is contained in the US Constitution.
Nothing could be further from the truth. There is nothing special about a "Constitutional scholar" that renders THEM more capable of reading or extrapolating what the document contains.
And the fact that so many people feel unqualified on these subjects compels the conclusion that VERY FEW Americans can recall when it was they last read the document.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat is a fairly astounding set of positions. Since when does a conservative activist seeking to transform the role of government in America defer to "constitutional lawyers"? Either he supports the C-in-C taking action without a congressional vote or he doesn't. As for going on a trip, this is the 21st century. A president could spend his entire term in AF1 and be just as well connected as if he were in the WH.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"not the so-called commander-in-chief"
What does this mean? Obama is the President, so he is in every sense the commander-in-chief, regardless of whether you support his policies. This should be obvious to anyone with a 1st-grade level understanding of civics.
It is really sad to me to see the garbage that is being posted on the Corner these days. This is a small example but, as a liberal, I used to come here all the time to get intelligent view points from the other side. Now I just come here occasionally to see how bad it has become.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse