Under the Constitution as originally drafted, only the federal government would be limited by it and your state could fuck you over any way it liked, state constitution permitting. A fact extremely relevant to Goldwater’s states’-rights stance on segregation.
One of Goldwater’s quotes used to show his extremism was, “I’d like to lob a nuke into the mens room of the Kremlin.”
Not a popular idea so few years after The Cuban Missile Crisis.
To be fair to him, he was joking. He didn’t really want to nuke Moscow.
Not quite. Many liberals and Progressives are quite vocal that they believe the Constitution to be a dated document in need of a re-write.
Go to any college campus and you will see it, not least from the professors themselves. The euphemism for completely de-legitimizing the Constitution is to label it a “slave-owner’s document.”
See The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy, by Daniel Lazare. Fascinating historical perspectives even if you reject the conclusions.
And I’m going to Hell – I thought it was kind of funny. But I’m sick like that.