The Liberal American Constitution Society Is Named After the Text …

... and the conservative Federalist Society is named after legislative history.

Go figure.

Comments

[Smooth Like a Rhapsody]

...and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is named after....?

[Eugene Volokh]

I think it's named after the Holy Roman Empire.

[Kyfho Myoba]

Long after ...

[librarian]

Unity through inconsistency

[Smooth Like a Rhapsody]

Or, as Al Gore translated our national motto, "from one, many".

[librarian]

Yep, one through many and many through one, the fractured but whole

[Procyon Mustelid]

And doesn't the Federalist Society tend to adhere to Anti-Federalist positions?

[QuantumBoxCat]

I think that's pretty accurate. They kind of repurposed the name "Federalist" while maintaining the preatige or reverence that the name connotes. It seems unlikely they would support a John Marshall for nomination to the Court.

[MonitorsMost]

I don't think it's accurate to say the Federalist Society repurposed the term. I think the idea of anti-federalism had morphed well before that with the concept of dual federalism and the what not pre-civil war. Once federalism became the norm, the only people talking about federalism were the people who would have been called anti-federalist. So the name of the topic and the position on the subject just merged.

[BigChiefWahoo]

Did not Hamilton, Madison and Jay effectively redefine "federation", which had previously been regarded as synonymous with "confederation"? The "Anti-Federalists" of the 1780s probably regarded themselves as "true" federalists. Hamilton, et al got the constitution they preferred and "won" the terminology contest.

[tkamenick]

The answer I've gotten when I've asked that question is that modern FS treats "federalist" as representing the *state* of the division of powers between the federal and state governments after 1787. Thus, the FS wants a return to that particular state, rather than treating "federalist" as a relative measure of increasing the federal government's power and "anti-federalist" as a relative measure of increasing the states' power.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Vociferously.

[rsteinmetz]

It is the perfect example of modern political naming conventions where names are chosen to obscure and obfuscate the position of the organization.

[Sarcastr0]

I don't think either is quite so sinister, just branding with whatever sounds good.

[CalArtian]

"Go figure" in isolation like that seems positively Biblical with slight overtones of Mel Brooks.

And then the LORD said to Abraham, "Go. Figure."

[librarian]

I'd wager a guess you're the first and last to think that.

[Eddy]

...and you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

the conservative Federalist Society

Not "libertarian Federalist Society?"

I commend the honesty.

[MonitorsMost]

I suspect that the Federalist society was named based on the idea of Federalism (or what would have been known as anti-federalism back yonder) as opposed to the Federalist Papers themselves. I don't know, but that would be my guess.

[DjDiverDan]

And the Democratic Party is named for democracy, which they define as only ocurring when they win elections.

[eyesay]

Can it, DJ. The Republican Party supports disenfranchisement of African-Americans by depressing voter turnout, removing voters from the rolls for fake reasons, and more, while the Democratic Party works to expand voting rights. In Florida in 2000, Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris hired a corporation to "scrub" the voter rolls, and 50,000 names, mostly African-Americans, were removed from the voter rolls on the pretext that their names resembled those of convicted felons. 50,000 is about 100 times the margin by which George W. Bush was certified to have won the Florida vote count, which means that Republican Voter Suppression stole Florida, which means that Al Gore was the true winner of the 2000 election, which means that John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito should never have been nominated to the Supreme Court. Yes, the Democratic Party supports Democracy. Republicans have to resort to voter suppression and Russian election hacking in order to "win" presidential elections. And today, the Russians are hacking away at the 2018 election and the Trump administration is ignoring the greatest threat to our Republic in history and also trying to suppress the investigation into the Russian hack of the 2016 election, which involved members of his family and his campaign. I'm with Edvard Munch on this one.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

In fairness, those Republicans might not be engaging in bigoted conduct solely for the racially motivated purpose of abusing black citizens.

Some conservatives might engage in or approve bigoted conduct toward black citizens mostly because those black citizens tend not to vote for Republicans.

Bigotry-appeasing mercenaries rather than straight-up bigots.

[Martinned]

As always, I won't pass up the opportunity to mention that in the North Carolina redistricting litigation it was revealed that being black was a better predictor for voting Democrat than being a registered Democrat was.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Not all southern bigots who were Democrats back in the day have been competent enough to switch registration yet in the Great Bigot Migration. They vote Republican but are still registered as Democrats. You need to remember that some of these people have never accomplished or stuck with me in their lives, so changing a registration is too much to expect.

[gormadoc]

I was reading this expecting some grade A trolling, but it turns out the link wasn't a rickroll.

The "greatest threat to our Republic in history" is limited Russian influence on an election? I realize you weren't around for any of the major wars we've fought (I'm pretty sure the Revolutionary War is the closest to destruction we've ever been) and apparently you missed the MAD doctrine of the Cold War, but even then it's monumentally stupid.

[DRM]

Linking a cross-stitch pattern of "The Scream" was a superior alternative to a rickroll. And didn't you notice the bit about how Clarence Thomas shouldn't have been appointed to the Supreme Court (in 1991) because Al Gore won the 2000 election?

I give him a 10.

[DjDiverDan]

I wasn't aware that Edvard Munch was committed to an insane asylum.

[Eugene Volokh]

And the Cato Institute shares the name of a famous censor.

[apedad]

Inspector Clouseau's man-servant was a famous censor?

[Eddy]

A guy who hung out at OJ's place has no business being censorious toward anyone.

[DjDiverDan]

And here I thought it was named for the Green Hornet's chauffeur and sidekick.

[Doug Huffman]

I believe it an axiom that The Name Is Not The Thing and that we must be skeptical of powerful epithets.

[jsfreason]

There are also no Rifles in the National Rifle Association.

[Negi]

The chairman of the conspiracy repeatedly proves he the best man for the job =]