The Graham Amendment?

by admin on Aug.04, 2010, under Commentary

By Baynard Woods

Lindsey Graham has collapsed. This week, the senator proved that his actions over the last few months constitute a capitulation to the outrageous elements of his own party. It seems that in the epic battle between our two senators Jim DeMint has won. DeMint has not vanquished Graham the man, but Graham the ideaâ€”for the man has bowed to the DeMintean principle, and kissed the ring of the king of the New Right.

When Graham backed out of the very pro-business rather right-wing cap and trade bill over immigration, it seemed that he did not want his friend Senator McCain to have to face the issue in the Arizona Republican primary. Now that the Tea Party has embraced immigration as a major issue and admittedly Neo-Nazi groups are patrolling the border, Graham embraces their principle in the most anti-conservative way possible: a Constitutional Amendment.

A reader of this column may be surprised to find thatâ€”at least half of the timeâ€” I consider myself a conservative, in the sense that Edmund Burke, Peter Vierek, and even Andrew Sullivan are conservatives. Iâ€™ve studied enough history to know that all human endeavor is fraught with unforeseen consequences and so I am generally skeptical of revolution. I believe conservatism and conservationism are the same thing. DeMintâ€”and now Grahamâ€”claim to be conservatives, but are in fact radicals who want to undo the last century and a half of American tradition.

Right wing radicals consistently claim that they want to preserve and protect the Constitution. When is the last time that someone on the Left has attempted to amend the Constitution? What about the Right? Recall the Protection of Marriage Amendment â€“or whatever that attempt to radically expand the reach of the federal government into the realm of religion and sex and the family was called. They wanted to tell Americans what the family must be and criminalize anyone who pursued happiness in any way that made them slightly uncomfortable. It is not, as in classical political philosophy, that your freedom ends where my nose begins. Rather, for the Right, youâ€™re freedom ends where their imagination begins. (There are those on the left who embrace this same maxim. I pray that Al Gore divorced that hideous monster he was married to because he could not stand her puritanical attempts at censorship and thought controlâ€”I predict sheâ€™ll become a right-winger before the end of the year.)

Graham demonstrated his fealty to the radical Right on FOX News Wednesday night in an interview with Greta Van Sustern. Graham said that heâ€™s â€œgot toâ€ â€œchange our Constitution and say if you come here illegally and you have a child, that childâ€™s automatically not a citizen.â€

Of course, the Right is probably comfortable changing this part of the Constitution because it is the 14th Amendment that gives citizenship to anyone born in the United States. It was the amendment that made the former slaves citizens. It is also the amendment that prohibits members of congress from an insurrection against the government. (By the way, all you Confederacy lovers, it was treason. You canâ€™t fly both the Confederate flag and the United States flag in South Carolina. The U.S. National Guard ought to come and physically take the Confederate flag down, like they would for any other rebel group trying to occupy American soil.)

Graham went on the say: â€œIâ€™m a practical guy, but when you go forward, I donâ€™t want 20 million more 20 years from now.â€ Twenty million more what? Brown people?

The day before Graham announced that he just â€œgot toâ€ change the Constitution to keep brown people out, BusinessWeek.com released a survey that ranked South Carolina as the eighth laziest state. The citizens of South Carolina were reported to sleep nearly nine hours a night and to work fewer than three and a half hours a day. Sandlappers watched more television than the citizens of any other state. In fact, at three hours and seven minutes, the average South Carolinian works only 19 minutes more than he watches television on a given day. It is no surprise that seven of the top ten lazy states are Confederate â€œRight to Workâ€ statesâ€”the others are West Virginia, Kentucky, and tax-free Delaware. Maybe since these are also some of the least educated states, we simply misunderstood our economics lesson. Itâ€™s laissez-faire, not a lazy chair, economics.

Imagine where South Carolina would be without immigrants. I was just talking with a small business owner who told me that illegals are the only people who want to dig the ditches he needs dug. When a white guy comes in looking for a job and the boss tells him that he can start right now if he wants to shovel, the white guy inevitably tells him heâ€™d rather stay on unemployment.

The country is facing countless crises, Senator. Instead of fearing the Constitution and the citizens it protects, you ought to welcome any help you can get. Stop worrying about brown people and start worrying about your own brown nose, Senator Graham.

talkback@columbiacitypaper.com

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1 Comment for this entry

BrantleyBarksdale
August 14th, 2010 on 1:01 am
Latin americans have a strong backbone but aren’t worth a crap if they don’t get there hour siesta especially when it comes to ditch digging. Aren’t they trying to bring back NAFTA jobs from south of the border. When the unemployment check quits coming for real your going to see all kinds of white peoples taking whatever occupation that will have them. You could need a Bachelors to be a janitor at the mall for instance. Unlike our two politicians , a well learned and used skill or two will seperate us all in the job market.Kill your TV . Makes for good back round noise when your with one you love on occasions. shout out to Al Greene ! Hope you can kick the charges …

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