Arianna Huffington weighed in on the whole Statue of Liberty poem issue from a few days back with a tweet I assume she thought was inspired and clever. It may shock you to find out, however, that her tweet was a standard swing and a miss.
Why does anyone pay attention to all those constitutional amendments — they were all added later.
— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) August 3, 2017
The whole issue, you see, is the claim that the poem on the State of Liberty was added later, so it should not be taken into consideration as policy or some such. Huffington therefore tries to equate it with the amendments in the Constitution of the United States, because conservatives worship this document unerringly and therefore it’s a great way to point out their hypocrisy, right?
Well… no. As it turns out, a poem is a whole lot different than a document that actually establishes the powers of a government. Not that I would expect someone like Huffington, a liberal who like other liberals believes the Constitution is a living document and should be translated liberally, to know this.
Also, there’s the fact that ten of those amendments – the most important ones, the Bill of Rights – were ratified at the same time as the Constitution, so just as a matter of timeline, she is very much incorrect.
There is a justifiable argument to be made that the spirit of the Statue of Liberty and the poem are one in the same, and perhaps we should look to our humanity for guidance. I am all for that sort of discussion. But if you’re going to be ignorant and make a dumb, easily refuted point, perhaps you should sit this conversation out.
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