For the Record: Lankford on Pronouns

 UPDATE AT BOTTOM

Oklahoma senator James Lankford's speech at the Family Research Council's Pray Vote Stand Summit in Atlanta offered what sounded like rhetorical gruel, warm but a little watery, almost David Brooks:

“Our Constitution, put together by our founders – I believe God led in that -- put together a structure and a system that has made us the most prosperous, most moral nation in the history of the world – when we follow it,” said the senator.

On top of reminding the audience about how many lawmakers do not follow the Constitution, he also stated, “One thing that we have lost. What is the first word in the Constitution? ‘We’ – hang on – actually, I work for ‘we’ [the people]. Because this selfish attitude has become more and more prevalent that the whole world is about me. And the power of our Constitution began with this very simple principle of ‘we.’”

Promotion of the speech on Twitter got me a little exercised, and some analysis made it look, in fact, kind of sinister:

(Note: What follows is a single Twitter thread, and the best way to read it is to just open it up, checking out the screenshot quotes in the last three tweets as you go.)

Lankford "argues" we fail to follow the first word in the Constitution--we should be obeying "the principle of 'we'".

At the Pray Vote Stand Summit dedicated to motivating the Christian conservative minority to "make a difference".

I guess at least it shows he's into pronouns. https://t.co/QWHTa2En1j

— Three Blog Night (@Yastreblyansky) September 21, 2022

The "we" in the Preamble ("We the People") is a really important word, but Lankford has no idea what it means: it makes a very radical claim, that this elected body formed to tweak the dysfunctional Articles of Confederation is, through the miracle of representative democracy...

— Three Blog Night (@Yastreblyansky) September 21, 2022

"We, the undersigned, are effectively the people of the United States", and although they may passionately disagree with each other on all kinds of important issues, they intend to fight them out and come up with a working arrangement.

— Three Blog Night (@Yastreblyansky) September 21, 2022

That is a "we" that intends to overwhelm the majority, establish a state religion, and rule unrestrained.

— Three Blog Night (@Yastreblyansky) September 21, 2022

And everything Lankford himself does shows that his "we" only has room for one party https://t.co/ITm7PnD5lR pic.twitter.com/Cwu1QqbLs9

— Three Blog Night (@Yastreblyansky) September 21, 2022

UPDATE:

Blackburn makes it totally explicit--"We the people" means "the Republican party"

The left has an agenda.

We the People have a vision.

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) September 21, 2022

The rest of us aren't even people.