By: Ryan Doucette
In a recent blog post, Gen Z GOP Policy Advisor Sam Abodo wrote that he was a “Second Amendment Absolutist.” While his assertion was in response to the notion that the Second Amendment is for everyone — including Black and Brown Americans — I want to take his idea of being a Second Amendment Absolutist one step further: I am a Constitutional Absolutist.
We are blessed, as Americans, to have our way of governance rooted in justice and equality. Not many individuals across the world are able to make such claims. And while we, as a country, have not always lived up to our ideals, we have consistently worked toward a future where all Americans are entitled to the same freedoms as their neighbors. This accounts not only for the Second Amendment, but also the Eighth Amendment, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Nineteenth Amendment, and the other twenty-two Amendments that make our country the way it is.
However, when President Biden states in a press conference that “no amendment to the Constitution is absolute,” I worry. Threatening one Amendment puts every Amendment in jeopardy. This includes the right to practice whatever religion you believe in, the right to a fair and speedy trial, the right to vote — regardless of race or sex. I don’t suppose President Biden would want to repeal the Amendments that allowed for these great pillars of American life, so why would he with the Second Amendment?
Maybe it is because dismissing the Second Amendment earns some cheap political points with a base that has long sought “progressive reform.” Or maybe the President personally does not believe in the Second Amendment. But calling for nonsensical changes does not make the Second Amendment any less. The Second Amendment is the law of the land today and will remain so for as long as the United States is a country. Acting any differently is ultimately a rejection of what we’ve long stood for as a people.
Yes, the Constitution can be amended. In fact, it has. But the last time we repealed an Amendment, the United States consisted of 48 states, and eighty-seven year-old Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley was a mere three months old. Furthermore, acting as if a Constitutional Amendment to repeal the Second Amendment is remotely viable is insanity. In a survey conducted in early 2018, twenty-one percent of Americans approved of a repeal of the Second Amendment. While this is disappointingly high, it is not even a third of the necessary sixty-six percent necessary for repeal.
Regardless of what some may tell you, the Constitution is absolute and dismissing its Amendments signals a major failure on behalf of our government to uphold promises to its people. Hopefully, my neighbors, fellow Americans, and most importantly, the rest of Generation Z recognize these words’ problematic consequences. The United States is bettered by our drive to produce policy decisions that improve everyday life, but dismissing the Constitution’s important legacy will ultimately set us back in our drive to create a more perfect union.
