What Did You Say?

Human Rights Campaign President Calls for Rejection of “the Little Piece of Paper” of the Founders

By: Jonathan Turley | August 30, 2024

Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/08/30/human-rights-campaign-president-calls-for-rejection-of-the-little-piece-of-paper-of-the-founders/

We have been discussing Democratic leaders and activists who have been calling for revolutionary change and a rejection of the foundation of the American constitutional system. The latest is Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson, who spoke at the National Democratic Convention. In an earlier speech, Robinson rejected what she referred to as the Founders’ “little piece of paper” and called for the reimagining of our constitutional system.

The voices calling for radical change have been growing for years, including among law professors and legal commentators. Viewers now get a steady diet of figures like MSNBC commentator Elie Mystal who called the U.S. Constitution “trash” and argued that we should simply just dump it.

In a New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the Constitution to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.” Georgetown University Law School Professor Rosa Brooks went on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” to lash out at Americans becoming “slaves” to the U.S. Constitution and that the Constitution itself is now the problem for the country.

I was recently called for a response to Robinson’s call. Yet, it is not clear if Robinson is speaking about the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution as that “little piece of paper.” However, she insists that “[i]n this moment, we’ve got to reimagine it with people that look and love like us at the center.”

Robinson added:

“And I think for us right now is about reimagining freedom and this American story in a way that is more revolutionary than what our Founders actually put down on that little piece of paper, but instead is the type of democracy that is by and for all of the people in this country. That’s the opportunity that we have.”

Her comments did include positive views of the progress made under the current system:

“The story of America is the story of progress towards freedom. In just a few generations, my family went from being enslaved in Mississippi to the first free Black family in Muscatine, Iowa, to preparing to elect President Kamala Harris. Progress is happening my friends!”

As someone who has supported LGBT rights for over four decades, I have nothing but admiration for those who fight for equal rights for everyone to be able to live their lives according to their own values and associations. However, a radical “reimagining” of our constitutional system is a popular and growing call on the left. It is often left vague in terms of what such a reimagination would entail, but suggests structural, not just policy, changes.

It is that “little piece of paper” that has secured the equal rights for members of this community.

Assuming that the “little piece of paper” is a reference to the Madisonian constitution, it is a “type of democracy” that has proven the oldest and most successful constitutional system in the history of the world. It has survived precisely because it was designed for the most pluralistic nation in the world. It allows for tremendous social and political changes but does so within a framework that protects individual rights.

Before we start “reimagining” our way out of the most stable constitutional system in history, we may want to consider how the alternatives have been faring around the world.

It is that “little piece of paper” that introduced a revolutionary concept of governance that permits a nation of rivaling factions and values to govern as one. That does not mean that we do not have deep and at times bitter divisions. However, we are joined in a common article of faith in the Constitution.

While he spoke more about democracy in general, Churchill’s famous comment could as easily refer to the Madisonian system: it may be “the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Marxist Strategy & Communist Goals from “The Naked Communist”: Shocking!

Posted by Scott Osborn — June 7, 2015

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://joeforamerica.com/2015/06/communist-goals-naked-communist

Communist Goals from “The Naked Communist” was read on the floor of the House of Representatives on January 10th, 1963 by U.S. Congressman Albert S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida.

The Naked Communist was written by ex-FBI agent Cleon Skousen in 1953. He describes the Marxist strategy during the Cold War.

Maybe we need someone to read these communist goals again. Send this article to your Senators and Congressmen and ask them to read this on the floor of both houses.

Communist Goals from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

The Naked Communist was written by ex-FBI agent Cleon Skousen in 1953.  He describes the Marxist strategy during the Cold War.

President Ronald Reagan said of the book: “No one is better qualified to discuss the threat to this nation from communism. You will be alarmed, you will be informed and you’ll be glad you heard him.”

	Marxist Strategy & Communist Goals	Completed to Date
01	U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.	DONE
02	U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.	DONE
03	Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.	Working under Obama
04	Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.	DONE
05	Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
06	Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.	DONE
07	Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.	DONE
08	Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.	DONE
09	Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10	Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11	Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12	Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.	DONE
13	Do away with all loyalty oaths.	DONE
14	Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15	Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.	DONE
16	Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.	DONE
17	Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.	DONE
18	Gain control of all student newspapers.	WORKING
19	Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.	DONE
20	Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.	DONE
21	Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.	DONE
22	Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”	DONE
23	Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”	DONE
24	Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.	WORKING
25	Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.	DONE and getting worse
26	Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”	DONE
27	Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”	WORKING
28	Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”	DONE
29	Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.	DONE and GROWING
30	Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”	DONE and GROWING
31	Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.	DONE and GROWING
32	Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.	WORKING
33	Eliminate all laws or procedures, which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.	WORKING
34	Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.	????
35	Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.	WORKING
36	Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.	DONE and GROWING
37	Infiltrate and gain control of big business.	WORKING
38	Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].	WORKING
39	Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.	WORKING
40	Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.	DONE and GROWING
41	Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.	WORKING
42	Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic, political or social problems.	DONE and GROWING
43	Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.	WORKING
44	Internationalize the Panama Canal. (Thank you President Jimmy Carter)	DONE
45	Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.	WORKING