The Freedom-Haters' newest gaffe-a-day politician has
a doozy today:
Democratic Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez misquoted the U.S. Constitution while threatening to run for president on Thursday.
According to a recap in
Politico’s Playbook, Ocasio-Cortez was doing a Politico photoshoot at Harvard University when she and a photographer joked about a potential presidential run.
“You can’t even run for president for another six years,” the photographer said, pointing out that Ocasio-Cortez just turned 29 years old.
Ocasio-Cortez then claimed that the Constitution only places a presidential age limit on men and threatened to run for president if Republicans don’t pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
“No, not for a long time. Thank God,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Although we’ve been joking that because the Equal Rights Amendment hasn’t been passed yet, the Constitution technically says he cannot run unless he’s 35. … So what we’ll do is we’ll force the Republican Party to pass the Equal Rights Amendment by threatening to run for president.”
“That is awesome,” the photographer reportedly replied. “All the people who say a literal interpretation of the Constitution is the only thing you should be paying attention to.”
“I will keep vigilance,” Ocasio-Cortez promised.
As Playbook notes, the Constitution does not say “he” cannot run — it says “any person.”
The relevant clause of the Constitution, Article II Section I, reads as follows:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
She ought to take the next few weeks and hang intensively with a basic civics tutor.
Geez, exactly how long is that 2x4 you've got lodged firmly up your backside?
ReplyDeleteHaving hung about in many campaigns, I have been witness to dozens if not hundreds of conversations like this arising among the young and enthusiastic volunteers, testing ideas and hypotheses, unafraid of some over-imagined humiliation for voicing arguments that do not turn out to be flawless. These are definitely NOT the young people whose civic engagement should cause concern.
Besides, mistakes are good. You learn more from them. It says so, right on the doors of the Social Justice Offices at East and North, right?
You get a B-plus for this bit of spin.
ReplyDeleteI always get helped when the Teach grades on the curve...
Delete:o)
Mistake-making young enthusiasts are a natural type of person to find across the political spectrum, but they're well advised to get some grounding in how basic things about civic life work before they run for office, much less get elected.
ReplyDeleteThis chick is going to participate in making laws we all have to live under. I'd like to see her up to speed on fundamentals before she gets going.