Pennsylvania state representative and Democratic Socialist Chris Rabb is the latest Democrat to reaffirm his alliance with virulent antisemite Hasan Piker. What is most notable, however, is his attack on establishment Democrats as “institutionalists,” a new label reflecting the radical agenda for changing our constitutional system. It is a term that is now in vogue on the far left by those who want to tear down our institutions and scrap our Constitution.
Across the country, attacks are growing on Democrats and independents who are viewed as insufficiently radical. Those of us who continue to celebrate the Madisonian democracy as creating the most successful and stable republic in history are now “cultists” and “institutionalists” who are trapped in “nostalgia.”
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have drawn support from many who want a literal revolution. DSA Steering Committee member Cliff Connolly declared on one podcast that they are “famous for” “Our hatred of the United States Constitution.”
Even those who are not joining the DSA are denouncing the system and lashing out at those who want to preserve it.
On the web, radicals denounce institutionalists who “want us to defend and support the institutions we already have.”
At The Atlantic, Sarada Peri, the former senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, referred to institutionalists as “peculiar creatures” inhabiting Washington.
She added that:
“Many institutionalists simply have a reflexive distaste for change, preferring the enduring, if ossified, conventions that offer them inherited credibility. But perhaps in part because they are mostly old, white men, institutionalists are afforded significant deference by the media and the general public.”
Rabb joined his chorus of radicals opposing institutionalists in their party. He is the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District and is now virtually assured of being a member of Congress. He is also emerging as a dominant voice on the far left. He has established his bona fides with a growing radical movement within the Democratic Party, denouncing the Declaration of Independence, calling our constitutional system “the beast” to be slayed, and bizarrely claiming that the Framers had no notion of what “policing” means.
On Friday, Rabb tweeted “This is what the institutionalists are focusing their efforts on now: Disavowing Hasan Piker.” He added “Not White Christian nationalists? Not the broligarchs? Not the AI overlords? Nope, the guy encouraging young people to use their collective political power for good. F— that noise.”
Of course, Piker rose to national prominence after other Democratic Socialists and radicals brought him to their states to campaign against establishment figures. Much like the left’s focus on figures who associate with Nicholas Fuentes, Piker has outraged many with claims that America deserved 9/11, American Jews are asking to be attacked by supporting Israel, and mocking the murder of figures like Charlie Kirk.
Putting aside the fact that Rabb still supports this notorious hatemonger as someone organizing “young people to use their collective political power for good,” he notably denounces those opposing Piker as “institutionalists.”
It is an important reveal, highlighting the radical agenda to trash the Constitution and tear down our core institutions, including the Supreme Court. Rabb has been one of those voices in calling the system “the beast” and denouncing our own revolution.
In my book Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the French Revolution and its decline into what the Framers called a mobocracy. In France, “The Terror” began not with the working class, but with educated lawyers, journalists, and even aristocrats as part of the Jacobin movement. Eventually, after the mob had finished off the aristocrats, clergy, and merchants, they turned on their fellow Jacobins in a bloodletting that claimed the lives of thousands.
Even law professors and deans joined this movement in calling for the rejection of our Constitution on the 250th anniversary of our Revolution.
Mainstream figures such as Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley Law School, have published books such as “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”
The media eagerly publishes these radical views, such as the New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” in which Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale call for the nation to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”
Brown University’s Corey Brettschneider called the Constitution a “dangerous document” that is driving this “threat to democracy.”
George Washington law professor Mary Anne Franks condemned the “cult of the Constitution” that has been defended to advance “white male supremacy.”
Now, to support our constitutional system is to be an “institutionalist,” a pejorative term that is as bad as being an “oligarch” in the new revolutionary lexicon.
Even establishment candidates like former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are trying to pander to the mob by calling fealty to our traditions and institutions mere “nostalgia.”
It is a familiar strategy. After Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB agent who defected in 1970, revealed the four stages by which the Soviets hoped to bring about revolutionary change in the U.S., it began with undermining our institutions and values, with the help of journalists and academics.
The success of this counter-constitutional movement is reflected in the growing list of establishment figures like Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg throwing the Supreme Court to the mob. The problem with leading the mob is that you have to stay in front of it or be devoured by it. Packing the court is unlikely to be enough. After they come for the institutionalists, they will come for the incrementalists.
It appears that, if you are not campaigning with Piker, you could be next for the pike. El-Sayed declared in his campaign that moderates like Democratic Senator John Fetterman should have their heads cut off and put on pikes like ogres.
So much for the “Big Tent party.” For institutionalists, the message is clear. Lose your constitutional “nostalgia” or your political heads.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times bestselling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
“Fiddler on the Roof” is a movie that explains the creep of communism. Leon Trotsky learned the lesson all too well.
yes, two of the “boyfriends” of Tevye’s daughters were enamored of the communist spirit. The difference that I note between cultures that readily accept communism is base, mainly on the current social and economic conditions of those listening. It would seem totally ideal to peasants and serfs who never had, before, tasted freedom and the free enterprise of that situation to readily accept some untested theory that sounded better than what they had.
What I find most alarming is that we have affluent/comfortable beneficiaries of capitalism glomming themselves onto a concept that (if you listen to them blabber) they know little about and comprehend its implications and history even less while basking in the abundance of capitalism. These blockheads seem to be interested in any analysis of their cult but cling to it because what other ideology/tenet is their in their vapid, clueless world.
I can understand the starving chinese peasant following Mao when he promises utopia but just what do these little woke morons think will happen to their starbucks and their Iphones when capitalism falls. You know they operate only on self-induced ignorance in order to protect the ideology that has become their personality.
You sick creepy old b_tich.
Yep.
High IQ answer.
Not!
Anonymous,
Are you auditioning to be the chair of the Disinformation Governance Board?
Oh, no! It looks like whimsicalmama got under annony’s skin! And why would that be? Why, whimsicalmama comment was right on the mark! We all see how correct her comment was! And we see it from your ever so low IQ response!
How marvelous!
“[W]hat do these little woke morons think will happen to their starbucks and their Iphones when capitalism falls.”
They imagine that everything will be fine, because they have a collectivist theory of wealth creation — that the cornucopia they enjoy is somehow created by the public, the community, the collective. Thus Obama’s infamous statement: “You didn’t build that.”
They are in for a rude surprise when their iPhones become flip phones, which become rotary phones, which then become two tin cans connected by a string.
With over 310 million people, expect there will be many different assessments of problems and many different proposed solutions. Prof, Turley disagrees with the figures in this piece, but I wonder if when prominent people like Turley writes about these figures, does that elevate them?
We better start wearing the label “Institutionalists” proudly, or the radicals who want to get rid of the Declaration and the Constitution will undermine everything. One of the backbones of our Capitalist economic system is individuals owning their own property, which helps prevent revolutions, since so many get to share the country and have much to lose. But as we’ve grown soft while the foundations of the country have shifted, we’ve also lost the will to literally fight for the system if it might damage our own property! The radicals are willing to break everything to get what they want, so the rest of us better get ready for what lies ahead. About 50 years ago, theologian and philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer basically said this was the direction the United States was headed. I recall at the time not thinking this was possible, but now I see it on the horizon.
Turley gets it!
Censored.
Read Barbara carefully
Contrary to what so many believe (because they spend way too much time on social media), the Piker, Al Assad, AOC, Tlaib, Talafreako and other DSA supporters are just a TINY piece of the Democrat “big tent” cesspool.
They are all low self-esteem narcissists who think they have more power than they really have, because we conservatives are quietly laughing at all of them while maintaining our training with those scary boom-boom sticks.
Their teachers union stooges and college indoctrinators completely ignored actual history and taught that revisionist nonsense that glorifies Marxism and completely goes against human nature.
Most of those miseducated kids revert back to normal human beings once they enter the work force (i.e., “real world”). Only the psychotic Gender Studies grads keep freaking out online, mostly because they can’t get a job that will ever be able to pay off their student loans.
Of course, their greatest contribution to our country right now, which is why most of us remain silent about them, is how they are creating more and more Republican voters with every selfie rant they post. 😉
Cliff Jackson is Estovir.
Cliff, I appreciate your optimism, but don’t get too complacent. It doesn’t take many of those miseducated marxist kids and their mentors acting as deep state Fifth columnists and saboteurs to weaken our democracy at vulnerable moments and put us all at great risk.
There’s just so much room on the reviewing stand for the May Day Parade.
Sort of like Bush Republicans violating Reagan’s Torture Treaty, a constitutional crime under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. Or Trump illegally amending the 14th Amendment through Executive Order, then using our tax dollars to litigate his frivolous lawsuit.
Or the 1960’s “War on Drugs” which gutted 4th Amendment law. Politically taxpayers spent over $1.5 trillion which resulted in MORE drugs (not less) and drastically impacted the economy by destroying income (payroll taxes, economic activity) by jailing Americans for a substance safer than nicotine or liquor.
Maybe instead of blaming the other party, we need to focus on the root causes which caused this Slippery Slope of constitutional law breaking? All of the above examples are authorities no constitutional officer has under the U.S. Constitution and Article VI.
More stupid blather from you that has nothing to do with the article. Your trying to push false narratives on every post Turely writes show you are not completely sane or truthful.
Really get some help.
Compare the “War on Drugs” to the “War on Poverty” (begun in 1964 by Johnson). Between 22 and 30 Trillion inflation adjusted dollars have been spent since it began. In 1964 the Official Poverty Measure was 19%, by 1973 it was 11.1%, today it is 10.5%. Current spending is about $1T per year.
Draw your own conclusions, but cleary when it comes to spending taxpayer money inefficiently, the US is World Class.
The best way to defeat extreme socialism (from both the extreme left and extreme right) is for Capitalism to be reformed to benefit most Americans.
MAGA Republicans support government ownership and government control over corporations – also a firm of extreme socialism found in former Communist block nations. Trump’s Executive Branch now owns shares in corporations, a conflict of interest when regulated by Executive Branch agencies.
The rise of extreme socialism is the result of extreme Capitalism that is broken.
“The best way to . . .”
Your call for middle-of-the-road, and a mixed economy (part capitalism/part socialism) started in the early 20th century (with the Progressives). Since then, with a few exceptions, the socialist/welfare state elements grew (the New Deal, the Great Society).
That “creeping socialism” has been well known for decades. And now the fully grown monster has crept into the D’s “big tent.”
Don’t know your history — you’re doomed to repeat its failures.
You have no idea what MAGA supports.
This clown is broke because he’s worthless.
He blames “capitalism” for his abject failure.
The Constitution doesn’t confer “capitalism”; it confers freedom, which puts worthy people on the road to success.
It also leaves the useless parasites screaming for “free stuff” and “free status” in the dust of self-reliant and ambitious producers.
America is in debt because the parasites scream, “More, more, more,” and their liberal, milquetoast, fellow poor vote for those aforementioned leeches.
“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” Hosea 8:7
If they break this centuries-old constitutional contract, we are under no obligation to accept their contract. That’s what these arrested adolescents don’t get.
Release the whirlwind, baby, and see what happens.
If somebody breaks a contract and unilaterally tries to enforce a new one, that isn’t democracy. That’s tyranny.
And refusal isn’t insurrection. It’s freedom.
My concern is that these leftwing lunatics might be ok with the Union breaking up. If they can’t control it, they’d rather break it. That has always been my suspicion. Russia, China, and Iran are licking their chops, I bet.
PUPPET WATCH
Estovir’s puppets on this thread include:
Unadulterated0263034d80
Sally
Gdonaldallen
Michael Crognale
Suezappa
Whimsical Mama
Hullbobby
James
You idiot. Why am I not on this list, you dunce! Maybe I need to turn up the heat.
LOL you get him. He just says stuff to annoy people even he doesn’t believe the crap he comments
Because Diogenes was an honest man. Can you say the same about these politicians?
I’m insulted that you left me off the list too. What do we have to do to get good trolls around here, sheesh!
IKR! I miss Joe Friday. There was some quality trolling. We never should have red-pilled him 😉
Do you have a life moron?
No really.
A new go fund me account has been created to help X get laid.
http://gofundme.com/helpxgetlaid
Then again a Hazmat suit is not an included in the arrangement because why lie? no one bed X. Noooooo one
Now watch X go bat sh!t crazy nuts all day on here, um, more than usual
bwahahahahaha
Note: no trolls were harmed in this post
The Constitution limits the authority and power of government to preserve the individual freedoms of the public. That is the problem the Dems and their now socialist base have with the Supreme Court. The “institutionalist” Dems were calling for packing the court well before the DSA reared their ugly head, to render the Constitution a dead letter. The Dems have openly said they seek to make it impossible for Republicans to win another election establishing one party rule. The Dems have been stoking violence since Trump was elected in ‘16. The difference between the old Dems and the new is only that the new kids are more impatient and louder. They don’t mind shouting the quiet part out loud. We’re a nation of 330 million. I don’t think we’re going to let the rabble take our country from us without a fight.
Unadultered and Sally are both Estovir.
MORON ANON IS IN LOVE WITH ESTOVIR! ESTOVIR SPURNED MORON ANONS ADVANCES!! MORON ANON IS CRYING OUT TO THE WORLD>
Thanks for taking the time to read my comment. I don’t know who or what Estovir is and judging from Sally’s comment I don’t think we have much in common. I still wish this site had an ignore button.
But just whom are you going to ignore?
What does law or tradition say is to happen to an elected member of Congress who refuses to pledge to “uphold and protect “the constitution?
It would be nice if it said anyone unwilling to “uphold and protect “the constitution” was disqualified from serving!
Since when has Turley cared about the Constitution? He is cheering Trumps trashing of it.
Firing squads never looked so good. You would definitely be a waste of ammo though.
Policy disagreements do not constitute trashing the Constitution. Give an example of what you are talking about.
Proof Sally?
You love to make that claim, but fail to post any proof.
Try something like this. Prez Biden forced Americans to get the shot or lose your job.
Now this a proof of a dedicator.
Here we are at the 250th anniversary of our Federal Republic. Measured from the Declaration of Independence. The first three words of the Constitution are We The People. It is no accident that we have this demand for change, 250 years out, on the strength of a used car sales pitch: Give up We the People and buy We The ?
What does statute or tradition say about an elected member of Congress, who refuses The pledge to “Preserved, protect, and defend “the constitution?
So deport Americans to Africa who make-up 15% of the population, those who have black skin? How uniquely American. You never fail to show your racist side in every comment.
What’s wrong with racism? It’s “choice,” right? Are you saying that free people enjoy no choice? Choice is the very definition of discrimination. I get it. Africans took over America from Americans, and Americans have no choice. So this is Africa, right? How ’bout Nazis? May we dislike and disparage Nazis? That’s discrimination.
From your message today, what conclusion is there? It is this: The Left has gone as far left as they can go. With regularity and impunity, they now wish death on their opponents and they desire to change the constitution. As Elmer Fudd would say, “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”
Actually that was Porky Pig. 😂
Right. With the understanding both were Mel Blanc’s voice.
Porky pig is Estovir
Gdonaldallen above and Crognale below are both Estovir.
The “institutionalist” members of Congress should refuse to seat these radicals. Expell them. And while they are at it: expell the likes of Omar and Talib and the other crazies. Of course, that would run contrary to a commitment to freedom of speech. So: how does one combat those who use the system to destroy it? It seems the Adams prediction that democracies commit suicide after about 250 years might be accurate. Sad. Concerning. And inspires one to recall Lenin’s question: “What is to be done?” Alexander Kerensky had no idea and look what happened to him and to Russia as a result.
“Freedom of speech” does NOT include treasonous calls to destroy our constitutional republic! I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to be that these radicals have “crossed the line” & are now calling for people to overthrow our form of government. This has nothing to do with President Trump. These radicals even hate today’s “democrat” party!
I’d very much like to hear what Prof. Turley has to say on these concepts. I’d like to agree with you. But I’m not sure the courts would. Worth a try, however!
No, not seating anti Constitution members does not violate the constitution or free speech.
Article I, Sec. 5, Cl. 1 clearly states; “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members,”
Article VI, Cl. 3 mandates;
“ The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;”
Socialist/Communist cannot be seated in our Representative Government, because they cannot meet the requirement of supporting our Constitution.
Article VI, Cl. 1 clearly mandates; “ This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;”
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. The DSA members and supporters can have all the free speech they want, but they cannot qualify to be members in any of our three branches of government.
The problem with not seating an elected member of Congress is the Supreme Court Powell v McCormack case (1969) that limited the ability of the House and Senate to refuse to seat an elected member only if they did not meet age, residency, and citizenship requirements, and nothing more. The ruling was based upon the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution and did not arise from a dispute between States or conflicting rulings among judicial districts. If a DSA member that supports abolition of the Constitution is elected to either a Republican-controlled House or Senate this election cycle they should be refused to be seated. That would tee-up a constitutional question that would allow Powell v McCormack to be revisited, as it should be. If an elected member of Congress takes an oath of office “. . . to support and defend the Constitution of the United States “, a Constitution they are committed to destroy, and are permitted to be seated, what good is served by swearing to an oath, and why continue this charade?
Can they be prohibited from sitting on any committee, thus making them impotent? In addition, I would argue that any committee that deals with intelligence, national defense or any other top secret area be off limits also.
However, if the Democrats control one or both chambers of Congress, they likely would allow a DSA member sit on a committee that deals with intelligence, national defense, or other top secret areas. They have already proven so when Speaker Pelosi would not remove Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee even after she was warned by the FBI that he was likely compromised by sleeping with a Chinese Communist Party spy.
The Communist party is still outlawed in the US.
Good points. Now: will anyone act upon it?
Correct, their goal is to abolish the current constitution and write a new communist constitution. Hence, wanting to get rid of the Senate and electoral college that gives equal representation to all states and only keep the House which gives proportional representation to states making big blue states all powerful and leaving smaller states without representation. It’s why the Democrats want to pack the Court’s so the radical judges and justices will rubber stamp their destroying the US. Notice they talk about getting rid of the President and appointing a new leader. That is not democracy. They also never name this new leader’s title. Party Chairman, General Secretary or Beloved Leader are the options for their new dictator. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.
The DSA is a magnet for polar opposites: The low income-low IQ bunch are easily baited with the FREE FOREVER GOVERNMENT STUFF PAID BY THE RICH slogans and LET’S BURN IT ALL DOWN rants. The WOKIE WEALTHY YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER BUNCH are on board because they figure they have their piece of the pie and if they play along they can insure they are relatively unscathed by the Pitch Fork & Torch Crowd when the end comes – the real idiots in the DSA Club. Gotta luv liberal educated numbskulls that think they are too clever to get pinched. History shows the Mob eventually turns inward once the easy targets are gone.
Honestly, I think that the horde of mis-educated “woke wealthy” (or just comfortably well off living with mom and dad) are so bored that any new challenge is welcomed. Look at them, they have no purpose in life, they aren’t builders or creators, they lack initiative beyond ordering doordash or starbucks, they aren’t inquisitive enough to burst out of their indoctrinated bubble and they are just living life “in park” rather in drive. I would wager that any new protest event is something that breaks their boredom and they are not particularly invested in the protest as much as they are invested in the camaraderie that it gives them, a sense of belonging to something apart from their vapid and empty lives.
They, the “woke wealthy” are known by another name: Losers. Why would sensible Americans risk them running the country is beyond me.
In the sense these people use the term ‘Institutionslist’, the opposite, the position they assume, can only be described as ‘Destructionists’. This term should be used to hammer these haters of democracy.
How about this;
America has enough cash to just purchase some failing nation in Africa.
We should, then, round up all the discontented here and ship them over to this barren field of opportunity to create their perfect world.
It is a win-win, we are shed of the haters and deviants and that same group now has virgin soil on which to prove all of their theories.
So deport Americans to Africa who make-up 15% of the population, those who have black skin? How uniquely American. You never fail to show your racist side in every comment.
Mama didn’t say Black people, she said discontented people such as Rabb, Piker, El-Sayed, Omar, Tlaib, AOC, and all the white idiots that are leading the DSA.
Anonymous can’t read, but I don’t excuse him because he is a nasty juvenile idiot.
Those names were not stated in that comment. We don’t expect clarity of thought or rationality from you.
“Those names were not stated….” It takes a special kind if intelligence to read Mama’s comment and a) not understand who she was speaking about and b) to see Black people.
I think Americans of African descent are quite good citizens, I think ghetto hoodlums who live the ghetto lifestyle and called something else by their own kind. Therein lies the difference between a racist and a person who understands cultures and how cultures are far more dangerous when they don’t comport with the status quo necessary to keep civilization functioning with the rule of law.
@Anonymous
Not me.
nasty juvenile idiot? And that’s coming from a nasty juvenile idiot no less who happens to be 75 years old.
Hullbobby and James are Estovir.
HullBobby,
And do not forget, some 80% of DSA members are white and college indoctrinated.
Won’t pass the filibuster, and if it did, we would have to pack the Supreme Court first.
But worth a try.
Whimsical Mama is Estovir.
I think my husband might have noticed that a long time ago – wrong again!
Anonymous is Hasan Piker