Constitution is under attack

We’re hearing plenty about the developing scandal known as Kremlin-gate. Everyone wants to know if the operatives of a presidential campaign cooperated with Russian hackers. Meanwhile, another scandal is emerging that I’d call Constitution-gate until someone comes up with a better name.

We’re beginning to see a pattern of assaults on our constitutional traditions and practices by cynical politicians that have been going on right beneath our noses.

This pattern includes gerrymandering, voter-roll purges, incitement of knee-jerk reactions to win elections by dividing our country, our right to free speech reduced to the right to spend money, compartmentalization of the First Amendment that divides and weakens all five of its freedoms, the people’s freedom of religion awarded to corporations, privatization of the public airwaves that shuts down public access, fiery political rhetoric that spreads a false one-dimensional notion of freedom, the raw power of money unleashed on our legislature, and trickle-down economic policies that perpetuate income insecurity and discontent.

My hunch is that Congress would never investigate this scandal. Too many of their members would be implicated. If we continue to ignore it, though, more scandals like Kremlin-gate are sure to come.

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Constitution is under attack."