I should know better than to get into an online discussion
with anyone, involving the Constitution, and particularly with someone whose views
are somewhat to the right of crypto-conservative. It’s like arguing Revelation with an atheist.
The discussion was spurred when I was “tagged” (against my
wishes, of course, and quickly removed) in a post from the Conservative
Veterans of America. These are folks who
take their God seriously, who are worried about the “European-style Socialism”
that President Obama (“HE’S NOT MY PRESIDENT!”) is foisting upon the nation,
and the kind of folks who allow obviously racist comments and cartoons to be
posted to their site, and never remove them.
The essence of the post I was tagged in was “Separation of
Powers is in the Constitution; Separation of Church and State is Not”, and the
message was one of those hackneyed rants about how we’d be better off if we
paid more attention to “In God We Trust” than the European Socialist Agenda the
President is following. Sorta like “we
need a whole lot more of Jesus and lot less rock ‘n roll”.
I don’t usually take the bait on these things; I just un-tag
myself from the post and move on. But
this time I had apparently had more than my daily quota of racist
Obama-bashing, and I sent a note to the person who’d tagged me in the post “So….separation
of Church and State is not in the Constitution, huh? Where do you suppose that phrase came from?”,
expecting to get a response like “Communism” or “Atheism” or something along
those lines.
To shorten the story, I will say that when I told this
person that it came from the First Amendment to the Constitution, what we call “The
Bill of Rights”, I was told that I was completely full of crap because everyone
knows the First Amendment is about Free Speech and not religion.
Oh Kaaaay…….
“Have you ever actually read the First Amendment? If not, please do so, and then respond.”
A few minutes later (and presumably after this person
Googled “First Amendment” and read it) the response was that the Bill of Rights
isn’t really a part of the Constitution, so it doesn’t carry that much weight;
the amendments are just sort of suggestions but aren’t really law. “Not part of the Constitution, eh? So those gun rights you like to talk about
aren’t really rights, they’re just sort of a suggestion?”
I’m not sure if this person then discovered that his gun
rights are in that Bill of Rights thingy, and not in his sacred Constitution, but
the “conversation” ended there.
I should know better.
But sometimes it’s just too much fun to tweak these people.
No doubt today he’s on a mission to keep the Government’s
hands off his Medicare.
well, if you poke the bear . . .
ReplyDelete