Something remarkable happened this past week when the Republicans opened the 112th Congress by reading the Constitution of the United States

The reading was derided by both the lefty Democrats and the lefty media. It was called a stunt and waste of time. Some Democrats walked off the House floor in silent protest. Ezra Klein, a Washington Post staff writer, MSNBC contributor, and a certified lefty, called it a gimmick and said that the document is confusing, that no one can understand it since it was written over a hundred years ago. He further tells us is not a binding power on anything. View the video here.

Ezra, my man! Here are a few more writings that are over a hundred years old, and by your own admission, also over your head; the Declaration of Independence (1776), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and Tom Sawyer (1876). Perhaps you should get a high school level tutor to teach you to read and comprehend plain English.

So, almost immediately after swearing an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States..." some of these people were mocking, sneering, and protesting its reading, treating it with shameful disrespect. Moreover, the essence of the Constitution, the theme which runs through it, is this; respect for the rights and dignity of the individual citizen. Why do they treat it with such contempt?

What are we to call these people; patriots? Well, no, I don't think that's a good fit. They will surely call themselves patriots, but think about it. How can you call yourself a patriot and simultaneously denigrate the very founding document to which you have just sworn an oath of allegiance?

How about liberals? Many of them proudly consider themselves liberals, but they are far from it. Thomas Jefferson was a true liberal (in the classical sense), and the philosophies of these people are polar opposites to those of Jefferson. In fact, Jefferson would be considered a conservative today.

Progressives? No, that doesn't work, either. The root word of progressive is progress, and today's lefty democrats and media promote a regressive political agenda; centralized power, high taxes, and contempt for the American people. Look around the word today or throughout history and try to find a nation or civilization that did not come to grief with policies like these. Europe and some of our very own states (all run by lefties) have pursued these policies for the last 40 to 50 years and are all on the verge of imploding. The U.S. is getting perilously close, too.

Regressives? Now we are getting somewhere. To regress is to return to a former or less developed state. What do you call a political philosophy that has failed throughout history every time it has been tried? Regressive sounds about right.

There are some other possibilities; nihilists (according to Nietzche, nihilism is "absolute valuelessness" where "nothing has meaning"). Sound like anyone we know?

Socialists and statists (Mark Levin's term) are also possibilities.

Anyway, we must ask ourselves; how in heaven's name did we ever let people like this gain so much power and control over us? Further, how are we going to roll back that power?