Justice correspondent for The Nation, Elie Mystal called for the abolishment of the United States Constitution. While speaking on Pix 11, Mystal explained how he believes the Constitution does not guarantee equal rights for everyone.
“Now in your book, ‘Allow Me To Retort,’ you reframe politics and the Constitution by kind of breaking down how it all impacts voting rights, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, the list goes on and on. So, are you arguing that the Constitution needs to be scrapped altogether?” the host asked.
“Sure,” a laughing Mystal responded. “But, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Like, if we could throw that out and start over with a new document that was more inclusive of everybody, that was written by everybody — at no point have black people, brown people or women had a say in actually writing the Constitution or the amendments to that Constitution — if we could throw that out and have a delegation of all Americans to write a new one, I would be all for that.”.
Mystal then used South Africa as an example, noting how after apartheid ended a new document was written. Mystal acknowledged that since that is unlikely to happen in U.S., he is advocating that we “interpret our Constitution so that we extend justice and fairness and equality to all as opposed to whatever the heck we do now.”
Mystal then tweeted that his segment triggered “white wing media this morning by noting that their slaver’s organizing document is trash.”
Watch
Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC): It’d be great to “throw out the Constitution altogether” and create something “more inclusive” pic.twitter.com/9RiI2Bw9s5
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 3, 2022
Just like TheBlaze pointed out, Mystal’s (as usual), is telling serious untruths:
While those who drafted and ratified the Constitution in the 1780s were white men, black Americans have been members of Congress since 1870 and women have been members of Congress since 1917. Black Americans and women were serving in state legislatures even earlier than their respective breakthrough dates in Congress.
Thus, because the ratification process for the Constitution requires approval from Congress and state legislatures, black Americans and women have had at least some say in shaping the majority of the Constitution’s amendments.
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.
