Steve Deace: ‘Our side’ should consider voiding Constitution to ‘win’
If you want to get an idea of how far some “conservatives” are willing to go to “win” in the name of Donald Trump, look no further than Steve Deace and his recent suggestion that it might be time to consider voiding the Constitution.
In a lame attempt to make it appear that he was only inviting discussion — as if voiding the Constitution is open to debate — Deace used his X account (formerly Twitter) to suggest that since “the Left” (i.e. Democrats) have abandoned the Constitution, perhaps “our side” (i.e. Trumpists) should consider doing the same. I’m cutting and pasting it below in case it should mysteriously disappear in the future:
There is an argument simmering on the Right about whether or not the Constitution is still effective in maintaining order and preserving our way of life, given the broken social compact we often address on our show. I think if we’re going to have that debate, we need to begin it at the beginning. The most important words in the Constitution are “we the people.”
The people were not made for the Constitution. The Constitution was made for (and by) the people. We are not a system of governance. We are a people, and therefore we agree to submit ourselves to a shared system of governance. Before there was a Constitution there was a country, and that country was its people.
Who are “we the people” referred to? What culture(s) do they represent? What customs and heritages do they have in common? What values do they share that make this Constitution even remotely possible?
The Left has abandoned any pretense of abiding by the Constitution, because it FIRST answered those questions and understood it had nothing in common with us but a shared land mass. And as we see painfully on a daily basis, it behaves accordingly.
Therefore, it seems to me this debate on our side has to start from that sobering premise, and then answer the aforementioned questions, in order to rightly understand the signs of the times. (Emphasis mine)
Despite any implication to the contrary, Steve Deace has already decided that he’s willing to help Trump do anything it takes to “win” the battle against the Left because they broke the “social compact that bound us together” (i.e. the Constitution) first — as stated in this post from his Facebook page:
I’m no Augustine by any means, but allow me to submit the following Just War Theory for the Cold Civil War America is now mired in:
WHEREAS the Spirit of the Age, via its primary political vehicle the Democrat Party, intentionally broke the social compact that bound us together as a people.
WHEREAS the Spirit of the Age, via its primary political vehicle the Democrat Party, has made it known — by both actions and clearly expressed ideas — it no longer has any intention of even considering returning to the social compact that once bound us together as a people.
THEREFORE, we will no longer abide by anymore spirits of the law, traditions, decorums, or otherwise rules of engagement tethered to the social compact that no longer binds us. For doing so risks the possibility of either losing this cold civil war outright or it eventually (and tragically) turning into a hot one. And either outcomes would be existential tragedies for our children and grandchildren we cannot abide.
THEREFORE, our new rules of engagement are as follows. We are going to do everything it takes to win, other than what the ultimate Judge of our fates explicitly forbids in His Word. But beyond that, we will do everything else to the nth degree and with maximum prejudice when necessary. For we prefer cold civil wars when our side wins, and the other side loses. (Emphasis mine)
Deace likes to refer to the Left as “the Spirit of the Age,” but he conveniently leaves out that he is operating under that same spirit when he puts winning and Donald Trump above the Constitution.
Steve Deace has made himself the face of a growing willingness by the MAGA cult to elevate Trump above the Constitution, as we witnessed less than a month after his inauguration when a majority of Republican voters said in a Pew Research Center poll that they were willing to reject the limitations placed on the presidency by the Constitution to give Donald Trump more power to do as he sees fit.
In other words, Republicans believed Trump could address America’s problems more effectively if only he didn’t have to worry about Congress, the courts, and most of the social compact known as the Constitution:
A 59% majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say many of the country’s problems could be addressed more effectively if Trump didn’t need to worry so much about Congress or the courts. Republicans who say they ‘strongly’ identify with the GOP are particularly likely to say the nation’s problems could be more effectively addressed by giving Trump more power: 78% say this.
The partisan divisions were enormous: 90% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents concluded it would be “too risky” to give Trump more power without checks and balances, but according to the Pew data, a majority of GOP voters came to the opposite conclusion. (Emphasis mine)
Despite the “fake news” cries of the MAGA crowd, this poll confirmed polling done a year earlier by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research concerning the idea of abandoning the Constitution in favor of granting Trump unlimited power:
The Associated Press reported … on a national AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey, which found that 57% of Republicans endorsed the idea of Trump “taking action on the country’s important policy issues without waiting for Congress or the courts.”
An NPR/PBS/Marist poll, released around the same time, asked respondents whether they agreed that conditions in the U.S. had deteriorated to the point that “we need a leader who is willing to break some rules to set things right.” Among GOP voters, a 56% majority endorsed the idea.
For Republicans and Trumpists — but I repeat myself — who want to sweep this under the rug as a new attack by the liberal media, this willingness to shred the Constitution and give Trump dictatorial power existed during his first term and during his 2020 reelection campaign when a majority of his followers favored postponing the 2020 election.
According to a Washington Post survey of over 1000 adults at the time — with an emphasis on 650 voters who were Republican or leaned Republican — 52 percent of those polled indicated support for postponing the 2020 election, if Trump declared it, until the imaginary illegal immigration voter problem was fixed. The number increased to 56 percent if both Trump and congressional Republicans call for the postponement.
This disturbing history of Republicans’ willingness to void the Constitution in the name of “winning” with Trump confirms what I’ve been saying ever since the dictator wannabe rode down the escalator in 2015: the Republican party has morphed into a Party of, for, and by Donald Trump. Equally disturbing is how Trump has destroyed conservatism to such an extent that we now have people like Steve Deace openly advocating for the destruction of liberty and the Constitution in the name of “winning.”
As I document in my book, The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty, politicians in Washington, the media, and Evangelical leaders are allies in a coordinated attack against our God-given, constitutionally protected rights — and it looks like Steve Deace is a willing soldier in that war.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative and the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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