With right wing politicians and pundits apparently in competition with one another to say the most ridiculous and hyperbolic things they can think of about President Obama, Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia is staking his claim to the title with this little gem of stupid:
“I think my role is to uphold support and defend our Constitution,” he said. “… The Constitution I uphold and defend is the one I carry in my pocket all the time, the U.S. Constitution. I don’t know what Constitution that other members of Congress uphold, but it’s not this one. I think the only Constitution that Barack Obama upholds is the Soviet constitution, not this one. He has no concept of this one, though he claimed to be a constitutional lawyer.”
I’m sorry, what year is this? I swear, for wingnuts it is always “morning in America,” as Reagan famously said, because they are perpetually stuck in the 1980s. The Soviet Union is gone. It’s been gone for more than 20 years. Red-baiting was moronic even while they existed; it makes you look even dumber to use this bullshit in 2013.
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timgueguen
January 28, 2013 at 9:03 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m 99 percent sure this fool has never read the Soviet constitution. And I bet if someone did show it to him, with no indication where it came from, he’d agree with some of its ideas.
Larry
January 28, 2013 at 9:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Broun ended his statement with “Damn hippies with their rock and roll music!”.
Gregory in Seattle
January 28, 2013 at 9:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Other than it mandating a one-party state, the Soviet Constitution was, in many ways, more democratic than the US Constitution.
matty1
January 28, 2013 at 9:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@3 That’s probably why he doesn’t like it.
Christoph Burschka
January 28, 2013 at 9:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Also, I hear that he had his fingers crossed, and that the Bible he swore on was actually hollowed out and replaced with the Communist Manifesto.
Dr X
January 28, 2013 at 9:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I confess to not having known anything about Broun prior to reading this, so I just read his Wikipedia entry. Geez, the guy is a Tea Party wingnut straight from central casting.
fifthdentist
January 28, 2013 at 9:43 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And he’d have gotten away with it too, if not for moose and squirrel!
Mr Ed
January 28, 2013 at 9:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@1 I’m 99 percent sure this fool has never read the
SovietUS constitution.Other than “We the people”, and the bit about guns
slc1
January 28, 2013 at 9:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actually, the problem with the Soviet Constitution was that it was ignored by the government.
Michael Heath
January 28, 2013 at 10:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Paul Broun states:
Perhaps after President Obama’s presidency, if he survives, he can do a TV special to see who is more literate on the U.S. Constitution, him or Rep. Broun.
Paul Broun states:
Once again we have a white Christian conservative incapable of conceding what Barack Obama actually is (which was a professor/instructor on aspects of the Constitution at the U. of Chicago). So in this case an expert on a document Broun treats as sacrosanct while repeatedly demonstrating he’s both illiterate to its clauses and an opponent of its limitations on certain government powers and an opponent on the government’s constitutional obligation to protect the wrong type of people’s rights.
anubisprime
January 28, 2013 at 10:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Seems to be that Broun and his consort of assorted dimbats, whingers, whiners and dumbasses are casting around to find a affective sound bite to pillory Obama…all they have dredged up so far is just pathetic childish hysteria of no particular coherency.
Folk are not moved, well enough folk, to demonstrate previous mewlings were in any way affective!
So after failing miserably to convince all and sundry that Obama is not actually an American subject they have decided to re-work the old McCarthyite dog whistle, probably because it appeared to have worked so well last time out…subsequent revelations not withstanding.
Rethugs do not do history,they have very contracted concentration spans, and they do not do logical consequences to their insane drivel.
It is a bit like a bunch of urchins all goading each other on and glancing surreptitiously at one and other to see who has the cojones to charge the gun emplacement by going over the top first.
It is in part desperation. longing to demonstrate their bigotry, which must be suffocating, and pet hatreds publicly but quaking in trepidation and fear of being ignored by their own in the meantime, and thus being left behind in the new world order which according to some of the other fellow urchins in their gang is definitely a coming!, so it is more trying to stamp their identity on the map for the armed insurgence they all seem to be barracking for…
It does not really matter what they say or claim, it is just a fragile attempt at earning brownie points in the new world order…
Of course that established the seemingly frequent utterances of such extreme banality is of no great surprise…like dogs sniffing bottoms they are just establishing barking rights.
slc1
January 28, 2013 at 10:24 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re Michael Heath @ #10
But MH ignores the fact that the president is a graduate of Harvard Law School, a rat’s nest of left wing pinko commies. End snark.
Pierce R. Butler
January 28, 2013 at 10:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Michael Heath @ # 10: … what Barack Obama actually is (which was a professor/instructor on aspects of the Constitution at the U. of Chicago).
Considering how Obama has treated the Constitution over the last four years, I’m coming to suspect that the U of C Constitutional Law program lives as far out on the fringes as its Economics faculty.
oranje
January 28, 2013 at 10:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I mean, comments like that have been irrelevant since before Zooropa came out. Would these people even know communism or socialism if they saw it? And he may carry the US Constitution, but has he ever read it?
John Pieret
January 28, 2013 at 10:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
For his next act Broun is off to Berlin to tell Mr. Gorbachev to tear down that wall.
d.c.wilson
January 28, 2013 at 11:04 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What amazes me is that the conventional wisdom among the villagers is that the biggest problem in Washkngton is that Obama isn’t being nice enough to the people who daily question his legitimacy to hold the office he was elected to.
thebookofdave
January 28, 2013 at 11:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Mr Ed #8
@1 I’m 99 percent sure this fool has
neverread theSovietUS constitution. And is counting on the ignorance of Real ‘Merkins to take him at his word.kantalope
January 28, 2013 at 12:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I imagine the list of things that rep Broun has not read is long and comprehensive
the russian constitution, passed in 1993, all 137 articles can be found at http://www.government.ru/eng/gov/base/54.html
It sure is a mixed bag
Modusoperandi
January 28, 2013 at 1:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
d.c.wilson “What amazes me is that the conventional wisdom among the villagers is that the biggest problem in Washkngton is that Obama isn’t being nice enough to the people who daily question his legitimacy to hold the office he was elected to.”
The DICTATER Barack HUSSEIN Obama keeps reaching across THE aisle. EVERYBODY KNOWS thats socialism!*
* SOCIALISM!!!
Area Man
January 28, 2013 at 1:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Apparently? That’s precisely what’s going on here. They’re demonstrating their in-group loyalties with displays of hatred toward the outsider. And because they compete with each other for authority within the group, they have to constantly one-up each other by being even more fanatically tribalistic than the last guy.
It’s interesting from a sociological standpoint, like studying school-yard bullies or prison gangs. You just don’t want them making decisions that affect other human beings.
typecaster
January 28, 2013 at 1:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@18 – I think that Braun was referring to the the Soviet constitution, and probably isn’t aware of the fact that there were three of them, passed in 1924, 1936, and 1977. The 1993 version is post-Soviet by a couple of years. The text of the initial version can be seen here ..
typecaster
January 28, 2013 at 1:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Bugger – that’s the Russian version. The English version is at http://www.answers.com/topic/1924-constitution-of-the-ussr . Sorry.
Area Man
January 28, 2013 at 1:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There appears to be an inverse relationship between carrying around a pocket Constitution and knowing its actual contents. Must be the ultra-small print…
caseloweraz
January 28, 2013 at 2:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yes, Area Man. I think the only time Paul Broun truly upholds the U.S. Constitution is when he lifts that copy out of his pocket to wave it around for the cameras.
shockna
January 28, 2013 at 2:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
-snicker-
Seems the Soviet Constitution matches more of what Broun wants than he realizes…
jnorris
January 28, 2013 at 4:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The Soviet Constitution glorifies only socialism and communism, no mention of fascism. So Br Broun is incorrect as all right wingnuts know Mr Obama is a fascist, socialist communist.
greg1466
January 28, 2013 at 4:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s been my experience that people who always have a copy of the Constitution within arms reach almost invariably have no idea what it actually says. Strange that the previous sentence is also true if you replace “Constitution” with “Bible”.