ory” bestseller list. Beck is not the only commentator advocating such extremist notions. Popular authors Thomas Woods Jr. and Kevin Gutzman, in their book Who Killed the Constitution?, argue that Brown v. Board of Education should be overturned. Not even the Constitution is safe from the “constitutionalists”: Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano recently called the popular election of senators “the only part of the Constitution that is itself unconstitutional.” A gathering of conservative law professors and activists at a recent convention of the Federalist Society, after bragging about the right-wing triumph in off year elections, advocated called a constitutional convention to strip Congress of its current powers.
Conservative lawmakers increasingly claim that the “original intent” of the Constitution’s framers and the views of the Republican Party are one and the same. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia even got involved with House Republicans, which underscores the new boldness of conservative federal judges in adopting the rhetoric and ideas of the hard right. Scalia has repeatedly said that direct election of senators is “a bad idea.” He said that the Equal Protection Clause provides no protection for women against discrimination because when it was adopted “nobody thought it was directed against sex discrimination.”
It’s easy to understand why conservative politicians and judges are trying to align their political program with a strained reading of the Constitution: Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection and aid to education have broad popular support. So the right is seeking to win by changing the rules. Progressive, democratically enacted policy choices are unconstitutional, they argue. A document that over time has become more democratic is being rewritten as a charter of privilege and inequality. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Why has the right done such a good job...