November 29, 2012 11:41AM 

# Is the Constitution Ideological? 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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A front-page *Washington Post* [article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/narrowing-field-leaves-stark-choice-in-va-governors-race/2012/11/28/31694fb0-3984-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html) about the looming Virginia gubernatorial race between Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Friend of Bill Clinton Terry McAuliffe includes this point:

> McAuliffe is known as “a dealmaker,” said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes gubernatorial races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and Cuccinelli “is far more ideological in a lot of ways.”
> 
> 
> “I think \[Cuccinelli\] walks around with a copy of the Constitution, and McAuliffe doesn’t,” she said.

![Media Name: Byrd-line-tem.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/Byrd-line-tem.jpg?itok=5mzLbXwx) 

Really? The fact that the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia, home of James Madison, carries a copy of the Constitution makes him an ideologue?

Cuccinelli may well be strongly ideological, for [better](http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/the-man-who-took-on-obama-health-care-and-won-round-one/) or [worse](http://http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102904197.html). But surely carrying a copy of the Constitution in your pocket — [get yours today from the Cato Institute](https://www.cato.org/store/books/declaration-independence-constitution-united-states-pocket-constitution-paperback-0) — is not intrinsically ideological.

For more ideologues, such as the ones below, [see this article](https://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v27n5/cpr-27n5-2.pdf).

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