{"id":12280,"date":"2016-01-09T04:33:26","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T04:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=12280"},"modified":"2016-01-09T04:33:26","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T04:33:26","slug":"conservatism-takes-new-activist-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=12280","title":{"rendered":"Conservatism takes new activist turn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/CONSTITUTIONAL_CONVENTION_48124709.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12284\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12284\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/CONSTITUTIONAL_CONVENTION_48124709-300x208.jpg\" alt=\"Gov. Greg Abbott calls for a convention of states to amend the Constitution during a speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, Texas, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. Abbott called on Texas to take the lead in pushing for constitutional amendments that would give states power to ignore federal laws and override decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court. (Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/CONSTITUTIONAL_CONVENTION_48124709-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/CONSTITUTIONAL_CONVENTION_48124709-768x532.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/CONSTITUTIONAL_CONVENTION_48124709.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Texas Gov. Greg Abbott calls himself a conservative.<\/p>\n<p>Well, my understanding of conservatism traditionally has meant minimalist government; keep government quiet; don&#8217;t upset the status quo; let it ride, man.<\/p>\n<p>Not these days.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott has issued a seriously proactive call to remake the U.S. Constitution. He has called for a constitutional convention to craft some serious amendments to the nation&#8217;s governing document.\u00a0 They include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Disallowing federal law from\u00a0regulating activities wholly within a single state.<\/li>\n<li>Requiring a balanced federal budget.<\/li>\n<li>Providing a way to override decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>All told, Abbott has offered <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/texas-governor-calls-for-constitutional-convention\/ar-CCiIFz?li=BBnb7Kz\">nine proposals.<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>My favorite one involves the highest court in the land.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Abbott thinks two-thirds of the states should be empowered to overturn decisions by the Supreme Court. Interesting, yes?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I believe conservatives also believe in what&#8217;s called &#8220;strict construction&#8221; of the Constitution. They want to adhere to what the Founders wrote when they created the federal government.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One of the provisions they allowed was a totally independent federal judiciary. What Gov. Abbott is proposing &#8212; in my humble view &#8212; removes that a large portion of the independence envisioned by the founders. It puts ultimate authority in court decisions in the hands of state legislatures.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I am hard-pressed to find a more remarkable reversal of the traditional definition of &#8220;conservative government.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>What&#8217;s being proposed and discussed these days is a reform movement that puts &#8220;liberal activism&#8221; to shame.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Gov. Greg Abbott calls himself a conservative. Well, my understanding of conservatism traditionally has meant minimalist government; keep government quiet; don&#8217;t upset the status quo; let it ride, man. Not these days. Abbott has issued a seriously proactive call to remake the U.S. Constitution. He has called for a constitutional convention to craft some &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=12280\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Conservatism takes new activist turn<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","category-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12280"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12285,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280\/revisions\/12285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}