Joe Conason reminds us the extent to which today's Christian Right conservatives, who seem to be the hard core supporters for Harriet Miers, are the moral and intellectual heirs of the Southern segregations of the 1950s and 1960s. And their Yankee supporters, of which there always were some: Snarls from right wing greet Bush's nominee WorkingforChange.com 10/10/05.
If the grumbling on the right grows much louder, Ms. Miers may feel that she must start pandering to the extremists in her party. She will assure them that she is an "originalist" and so on, perhaps without fully comprehending what those right-wing code words mean.
Adhering to the "original intent" of the Constitution's framers, as a matter of logic, means upholding their ancient prejudices about African-Americans, women and other beings deemed inferior two centuries ago. The "constitutionalist" -- a term favored by members of the John Birch Society and worse not so long ago -- disdains the hard-won guarantees of equality for all, women and minorities included, that Americans accept as the true meaning of the Constitution.
This poisonous theorizing deserves to be exposed in public. When Ms. Miers appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearings, someone should ask whether she thinks the Founders intended women to sit on the Supreme Court -- and if not, why a truly strict constructionist should want to defy them now.
Actually, this also applies to many of the more secular Republicans of today. This is one more example of how today's Republican Party increasingly mainstreams extremist ideas.
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