"Originalism is a pretty weird ideological phenomenon from
a Canadian point of view. It suggests that the Founding Fathers
had some sort of super-human knowledge and foresight. Canadians
like their national heroes, but I don't think that we tend to
imbue any of them with godlike powers. But a significant portion
of Americans place a faith in the infallibility of these men's
documents that I can only compare to the passion of the most
doctrinaire of Marxists." --
sabotabby,
2010-08-18
(no subject)
There no "faith" in it. It is merely an excuse, a text to fall back upon as absolute when it suits them, and blatantly ignored when it doesn't.
Then again, it is perhaps like faith in that it is like the supposedly "absolutely true in every word" Bible, where passages that support their views are magnified, but passages that goes against something they want (like, say, playing football on the Sabbath, or eating shellfish) are discarded.