We Need To Talk About Sen. Mike Lee's Far-Right Pocket Constitution

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

On Monday, 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19, a maskless Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) appeared at a Senate hearing on Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination, where he spent the majority of his allotted 10 minutes “pontificating on the nature of constitutional government,” as The Daily Beast aptly described it.

Toward the end of his lecture, Lee produced a pocket-size U.S. Constitution and shook it as he emphasized his words.

“This is a thing that works, and works best when every one of us reads it, understands it,” Lee declared, pointing at the booklet. “And takes and honors an oath to uphold it and protect it and defend it.”

But Lee’s copy was no ordinary Constitution. It was an annotated version that’s published by a fringe Mormon group founded by the late conspiracy theorist W. Cleon Skousen and which has become the favorite of anti-government extremists and right-wing figures, including the men who led an armed seizure of an Oregon wildlife refuge over the conviction of two arsonist ranchers.

The booklet is annotated in such a way as to make it seem like the founders envisioned a solely Christian nation and a severely limited federal government. It includes both the Constitution’s original text and several religious ― at times out-of-context ― quotes from the Founding Fathers.

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/mike-lee-pocket-constitution-215329288.html

[Wellstone ruled]

1. These Pocket

Constitutions were handed out by the dozens in Utah after the 2008 election. My understanding was it was what we called the Mormon Version of Constitution. A segment of the Utah GOP,called the Independence Party of American handed these out like candy. Remember,it was Cliven Bundy who waved these around during the Stand Off in Bunderville Nevada.