Groups like the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS), nestled in Malta, Idaho are promoting such programs as “The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution.” In one seminar, participants were told the secrets the “elite” have concealed from the people: the Constitution is based on the Law of Moses; Mosaic law was brought o the West by the ancient Anglo-Saxons, who were probably the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel; the Constitution restores the fifth-century kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. There’s more: virtually all of modern American life and government is unconstitutional. Social Security, the Federal Reserve, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Civil rights Act of 1964, hate crime laws-all flatly violate God’s law. State governments are not required to observe the Bill of Rights; the First Amendment establishes “The Religion of America,” which is nondenominational” Christianity. The NCCS is teaching poisonous rubbish to citizens who want to learn about America and its Constitution. Americans today are frightened and disoriented. In the midst of uncertainty, they are turning to the Constitution for tools to deal with the crisis. The far right-the toxic coalition of Fox News is talking heads, radio hosts, angry “patriot” groups and power-hungry right-wing politicians-is responding to this demand by feeding their fellow citizens mythology and lies. The NCCS was the cold war creation of the late W. Cleon Skousen. The center and its crazed ideology have been taken up by Glenn Beck. Civic groups, school districts and even some city governments across the country have been persuaded to sponsor day-long seminars by the “nonpartisan” NCCS; its speakers are visiting high schools to distribute pocket copies of the Constitution. Skousen’s massive “guide” to the Constitution, "The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution," has been in the Top 20 on Amazon’s “Constitutional history” bestseller list. Beck is not the only commentator advocating such extremist notions. Popular authors Thomas Woods Jr. and Kevin Gutzman, in their book Who Killed the Constitution?, argue that Brown v. Board of Education should be overturned. Not even the Constitution is safe from the “constitutionalists”: Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano recently called the popular election of senators “the only part of the Constitution that is itself unconstitutional.” A gathering of conservative law professors and activists at a recent convention of the Federalist Society, after bragging about the right-wing triumph in off year elections, advocated called a constitutional convention to strip Congress of its current powers. Conservative lawmakers increasingly claim that the “original intent” of the Constitution’s framers and the views of the Republican Party are one and the same. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia even got involved with House Republicans, which underscores the new boldness of conservative federal judges in adopting the rhetoric and ideas of the hard right. Scalia has repeatedly said that direct election of senators is “a bad idea.” He said that the Equal Protection Clause provides no protection for women against discrimination because when it was adopted “nobody thought it was directed against sex discrimination.” It’s easy to understand why conservative politicians and judges are trying to align their political program with a strained reading of the Constitution: Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection and aid to education have broad popular support. So the right is seeking to win by changing the rules. Progressive, democratically enacted policy choices are unconstitutional, they argue. A document that over time has become more democratic is being rewritten as a charter of privilege and inequality. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Why has the right done such a good job of putting out its invented “Constitution?" Some of the responsibility lies with progressive legal scholars, who are well situated to explain the Constitution to the public. It isn’t that they have failed; it’s that they seldom try. Conservatives don’t hesitate to speak directly to the public-and, often, to dumb down the Constitution. They purvey a simple myth: anyone who doesn’t support the far-right version of the Constitution is unpatriotic. Enough of that. The Constitution belongs to all of us. It’s time to take it back from those who are trying to steal it in plain sight. Ours Constitution wasn’t written to rig the political game, but to allow us to play it without killing one another. It created a government and gave the government that power it needed to function. That seems elementary, but the right claims that the Constitution was designed to prevent America from abandoning the purity of the Anglo-Saxon past. Any innovative government program, the argument runs, must be unconstitutional, or the framers would have predic