> What neither side
>is willing to argue is that these conflicting interpretations are deeply
>political - matters of relative power and privilege. Instead, it's all
>framed as an interpretive struggle around the dead white boys' text. Weird,
>very weird.
I dunno, Doug. I'd quote Alinsky again, here:
1) It's self-destructive to quote Mao about power coming from the barrel of a gun when it's the other side that has all the guns.
2) What you should do in any situation depends on what you want.
If you want to Create Real Change, then you don't spit on the flag, and you don't bad-mouth the Constitution, motherhood, or apple pie. Because if you do, it turns off all the people whom you'd better have on your side if you want real change. They close their ears and their hearts, and you've just effed yourself.
On the other hand, if you only want to Make A Political Statement without regard to practical consequences, then you can do whatever you like. Effing oneself may be physically impossible, but the left routinely do it politically. Whence the mess we're in now.
Personally, I'm all for Real Change, me, and Real Socialism [and therefore take great exception to your characterisation of me as 'left-liberal' :-[.
So, as far as I'm concerned, the Constitution is a hallowed mandate for fairness and social justice that the Arschlöcher in power today are subverting the Rat's Backside out of. It's shameful, un-American, and life will continue to degrade til they're made to stop.