- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Generally when we speak of "conservatives" in a political context we use the term to mean people believing in limited government, with modest intrusion in the lives of the people living under its reach. And in the United States this would imply a commitment to the Constitution; indeed references to "original intent" are often understood to be a desire to assure contemporary Supreme Court decisions are understood to be consistent with the values invested in the original document.
For this reasons Americans embracing the stance of Justices Alioto, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas should not be described as conservatives. They are extremists bent on destroying the Constitution, not preserving it. We have urgent need of a national debate on how we have permitted a political class so opposed to American principles and values to rise to positions of power in the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court. But as Gleen Greenwald notes, those who drape themselves in the mantle of American conservatism are not conservatives at all. And when John McCain announces he will nominate justices in the mold of Alioto and Roberts he underscores his commitment to an American extremism which is anti-Constitutional to its core.
