Monday, April 11, 2005

Do Conservatives Hate America?

To alleviate any unnecessary suspense, the answer is yes.

Conservatives are on the rampage against “activist judges” who are unaccountable for their actions. Tom DeLay has placed a not-so-veiled threat on their lives. Senator John Cornyn has offered justification for violence against judges if you disagree with their decisions.

Our wise Founding Fathers invented a system of government with three branches, after giving it, you know, a lot of thought. The executive branch to be the singular head of state. The legislative branch to write our laws, and who represent the people directly. And the judicial branch, which was intentionally created to be independent of the people – to be the one branch that is. The Constitution was very specific about that. Judges are appointed, not elected, so they don’t have to make phony promises, or worse, be corrupted by the money flowing into their campaign war chests. They are appointed for life, with very large hurdles to overcome in the case of impeachment, so that politics wouldn’t interfere with their decisions, and so no one has any undue influence over them. The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution this way on purpose. The judiciary is supposed to be unaccountable to the people or to Congress. Furthermore, the judges are supposed to use their wisdom and lack of accountability in order to stop a runaway Congress. If 90% of the country insisted that people who wear blue jeans be publicly flogged, Congress would probably pass a law, because they need to be reelected. Thankfully, we have a branch of government consisting of people who do not need to fight for reelection who can stand up for the rights of the 10% who want to wear jeans. It’s called checks and balances. Look it up if you’re not familiar with the concept. Another thing to look up would be what happens in a country without checks and balances on power. I’ll give you a place to start – try Googling Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Stalin.

But nevertheless, the conservatives are belittling our Constitution, our government, the Founding Fathers - in essence, everything America represents. So, I’ll ask the question again. Do conservatives hate America? Do they hate the Constitution? Do they hate Thomas Jefferson and James Madison? The answer to that question is self-evident.

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