The Tea Party, Rights, and Obama (Part 5), 8-29-2010

 [Continued from The Tea Party, Rights, and Obama (Part 4), 8-29-2010. sch 3/17/23.]

Have you not read Leviathan, or Locke's books on civil government? Shame on you. How can you seriously discuss the Framer's original intent? Check out the links above. 

The Indianapolis police have not ha a good Summer. Today's Star listed the police officers' legal troubles sinc e2008. I have written how our drug policy needs removed from the criminal justice system, but where do the conservatives of the tea party stand on this issue? If they do not see how the War on Drugs eroded everyone's rights, then from where and what do they see their rights being eroded?

I know it is hard not to feel the pull of those advocating morality-based laws. Harm is done to the drunks and drug users, they commit other crimes to support their addiction or as a by-blow of their intoxication. But do we need send people to prison for possession of drugs which are for their personal use?

We do not want to appear immoral when the religious leaders inflame their flocks about alcohol, or drugs, or prostitution, or gambling. Times do change - some day Indiana may have Sunday beer sales. [A shocker upon my return to Indiana was that liquor stores are now open on Sundays, and the ground has not swallowed up the State of Indiana for such immoral behavior! sch 3/18/23.] For all we have groups promoting the Ten Commandments in our courthouses, I think most are incorporated into our criminal code [Okay, none of those promoting piety, such as having no idols, but then do they want us to think hard on what is made an idol - like capitalism? sch 3/18/23.] However, I cannot find the influence of the Beatitudes.

I will suppose the tea party wants to erase the separation of church and state. I get that from what little I have read on what the group wants to do with federal law. So much for states' rights - as I recall, every state has provisions in their state Bill of Rights dealing with religion. Maybe the tea partiers have not rad their state constitutions? They are all online and education is only a few clicks away. Otherwise, I see the tea partiers using federal power to take away my state constitutional rights about religion.

I cannot remember when I fist heard grousing about school prayer. I know I did not pay close attention until law school. Those lamenting the loss of school prayer have never been called on a falsity running through their argument. They do not favor prayer as much as they endorse government sponsored prayer. As the law now stands, government cannot ban a student's own prayer any more than it can force a student to pray.

But therein lies another example where state government inadequately protected the rights of its citizens. Give a look at Indiana's Bill of Rights. Explain how a government ordered prayer, even of a generic Protestant sort, would not infringe on the liberty of a Roman Catholic, or Jewish, or Muslim, or Buddhist student?

Once past ideological tunnel vision, constitutional interpretation is not easy. A constitution is a blueprint for the machinery of government. One cannot fix an engine in a fit of pique. I will give leeway to the tea party they act out of fear or childishness, and nothing more sinister. They are wrong-headed on specifics. What general points they make about federal power, they waste in poor presentation.

About Obama being the source of all that is wrong in America, I say misses the point entirely. Blaming Obama only shows their ignorance of politics. When we have lost rights, it is because we have given them away - and at the request of conservative politicians.

sch

[The MAGA Republicans have made clear what the tea party only mumbled, they are racists and they want to retain the power of racism. That is all the good they intend for America. sch 3/18/23.]