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Republicans Want to Turn Back the Clock on the Constitution
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Tehran Tom Cotton has done it again.
 
After embarrassing himself, his party, and his country last week by sending a totally unprecedented letter to the government of Iran, the Arkansas Senator then went on CBS' "Face the Nation" yesterday and said that, "Oh, my God, the Iranians have already secured Tehran."
 
That's right -- Tom Cotton is freaking out about the fact that the government of Iran controls Tehran, which IS THE FREAKING CAPITAL OF IRAN!
 
I think it's safe to say that Senator Cotton might want to skim through a Rand McNally World Atlas before his next Sunday show appearance. In fact, while he's at it, Senator Cotton should also retake high school civics because his letter to the government of Iran didn't just violate diplomatic protocol, it also turned back the clock to one of the most chaotic periods in American history.
 
You see in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, America was governed by a collection of documents known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were, for lack of a better word, a mess. They didn't provide for any real central authority and gave no clear guidelines as to who had what kind of power, which was a big problem when it came to things like foreign policy.
 
As historian Kathleen DuVal pointed out in excellent piece for The New York Times this weekend, the result was a total vacuum where anyone who wanted to could negotiate with foreign governments.
 
Things got so bad that at one point in 1786, North Carolina Congressman James White actually tried to work out a deal with Spain that would have seen the western part of his state secede from the U.S. and join the Spanish Empire.
 
This obviously never happened, but it's still a great example why when they scrapped the Articles of Confederation in favor of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers gave the president and only the president the sole power to make and ratify treaties. The Founders had seen the kind of chaos that came about when citizens negotiated directly with foreign governments, and they wanted to make sure that that chaos never reared its ugly head again.
 
And, for the most part, they succeeded.
 
Read more here.
 
-Thom
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Daily Take: Republicans want to turn back the clock on the Constitution
 
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Hour One: What to do with the 47 traitors?
Article: "A Christian Nation? Since When?" by Kevin M. Kruse.
Book: The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol.
Documentary: Merchants of Doubt.
Article: "Israel's Gilded Age" by Paul Krugman.
Twitter: "47Traitors".

Hour Two: Hour Two: Is it time to disband the Republican Party?
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Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956", August 20, 1956.
 
Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann. Get "Screwed" by Thom Hartmann!
Article: "Teapot Dome scandal" by Wikipedia.
Letter: "Letter to John Holmes" by Thomas Jefferson, Apr. 22. 1820. "we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go"
 
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Article: "Let the debt ceiling games begin!" by Chris Matthews.
Article: "GOP fiscal, defense hawks square off over budget" by Seung Min Kim and Jake Sherman.
Article: "Burton Releases Hubbell Tapes" by George Lardner Jr. and John Mintz, May 5, 1998.
Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.
Article: "TRNS News Notes- 3/16" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Would you vote for Martin O'Malley for president?
Article: "Martin O'Malley sounds like he's running" by Katrina vanden Heuvel.
Law: "Glass-Steagall Act", 1933.
Video: "I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'." Ronald W. Reagan.
Article: "Julian Castro" by Wikipedia.
 
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