Kevin Drum noted an ABC News report yesterday that mentioned George W. Bush’s ongoing support for five constitutional amendments:
1. Flag burning
2. Victims rights
3. Abortion
4. Balanced budget
5. Gay marriage
This, in and of itself, is disturbing. As Drum put it, Bush “really seems to think the Constitution is just a rough draft.” Good line.
I wanted to note, however, that Drum and ABC actually missed one.
In 1994, Bush announced that he fully supported a constitutional amendment that would allow school boards across the country to make their own policies about school prayer.
Under existing law, all public schools are bound by the First Amendment and cannot, on a state-by-state, district-by-district basis, decide whether they will promote certain religions. Bush found current law inadequate and endorsed changing the Constitution so that school boards could ignore the First Amendment if they so chose.
At a meeting of the Republican Governors Conference, Bush explained that he believes an amendment could be helpful so long as there were no federal mandates on the states.
“I have no problem with a school prayer amendment so long as it is not mandated to our local Texas schools,” Bush said. He added that if he were serving on a local school board that he would vote for the community to have state-sponsored prayer in schools.
For an alleged conservative, Bush shows alarmingly little interest in conserving our constitutional traditions.