Seeing so many stories like this one I’ve become increasingly convinced of the existence and the importance of what I will call the Unicornstitution. Related but by no means synonymous with the US constitution, the Unicornstitution exists as a sort of ersatz Platonic ideal form of the Constitution which exists in the ether and is ready at hand to give a big thumbs up and attaboy and ‘you go girl’ to whatever crazy bullshit thing you already decided to do, especially if you’re really angry and stupid and fundamentally see life in America as as matter of other undeserving people taking away your stuff and your not being able to do anything about it.
This is related to a point I made earlier this year (“No. Sorry. You’re not a constitutional conservative.”) But it goes a bit beyond that – the desire to wrap every completely nutball idea you have onto the Constitution. Because generally because …
Ritzheimer is a somewhat extreme example, I grant you, but the Unicornstitution has become increasingly prevalent among high-ranking elected leaders who for instance really really think Obamacare is socialism and Kenyan and therefore unconstitutional. You just have to look hard enough to find out how. But you don’t need to look all that hard because the Unicornstitution is always right there at hand waiting, sort of like an imaginary friend.
