A Pre-emptive Strike Against the Constitution

Newt Gingrich started the attack against the US constitution in the beginning of the week. He launched operation shock and awe by striking against one of the most cherished principles of this country - the freedom of speech. It worked, because after all we've been through in the last six years, I was still shocked by this. The first amendment! I am not sure I can name something more sacred to the principles of America.

Then Dennis Prager came in and delivered the second blow to the first amendment (if you don't know him, don't worry, you're not alone; he is a buffoonish conservative talk show host who has made a cheap living desperately trying to copy Rush Limbaugh his whole life). Prager went after the establishment clause. He argued that every member of Congress should show their allegiance to the Bible in order to be allowed into Congress. The first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." How much clearer did they have to be?

But in case, you're as dense as Prager, the framers did make it clearer! Here is Article VI of the United States Constitution:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

The problem with these conservatives is that they truly don't understand the idea of America. They have no idea what this country stands for. If all we stand for is the religious views of the majority, then we are no different than any country in the Middle East. If we strike out against our enemies by trying to shut down their right to speak, then we are no better than communist China or the Islamic Republic of Iran.

These conservatives missed the whole point of the country. We are not just some slab of land between Canada and Mexico. Nebraska or Rhode Island or Hawaii is not the chosen land of any deity. The people that live here hold no special claim to privilege based on race, nationality or a favored religion. What makes us the greatest country on earth is that we are open and free. That we are willing to die to protect that freedom, and not just for us. We are the guardians of freedom. We are the ones who believe in liberty and champion it throughout the world.

And these clowns want to take that away because they are afraid? Perhaps Gingrich should have looked up the motto of the state he was speaking in. New Hampshire is the place of patriots - American patriots who lived and died for freedom. Not the place of moral and ideological cowards. In New Hampshire, they believe you "live free or die!"

That's the America I know and love.

Not the scared, shut-down society afraid of dissent that Newt Gingrich envisions. Not the exclusive, fundamentalist Judeo-Christian stronghold of America that Dennis Prager dreams of. I know an America that is open and free - and proud.

Don't tell me our boys died in Iwo Jima and Bunker Hill and Gettysburg and Normandy, so a bunch of cheap-suited Republican cowards can give away our freedoms without a fight in the middle of the night.

Newt Gingrich said that we should empanel people to impose a level of supervision on speech that we would normally never dream of. Why? Because he's afraid of the big, bad Osama. If your beloved Republican leader had caught him, maybe you wouldn't be wetting your pants worried about him. We beat the Nazis so that Gingrich could give our rights away to a bunch of ragtag terrorists?

This is the white flag of surrender. Gingrich is saying that we cannot defeat the terrorists with our rules. In case, you think that's an exaggeration, he literally said we need a "different set of rules" to limit speech and the internet. He is saying the American system that was good enough to win World War I, World War II and the Cold War is not good enough to beat Al Qaeda.

If I was less polite man, I would call little Newt a pussy. But I'm far too polite. Besides I don't want him putting this website on his list of dangerous websites that need to be banned. Oh, did I not tell you about that part?

"This is a serious long term war and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, it will lead us to close down every website that is dangerous."

This man wants to be President. If this is the kind of pre-emptive strike he has in mind against our constitution, imagine what he would do if he actually seized power. Remember, the last time Gingrich was in the government, he shut it down. Does he believe in the US system at all?

Can Newt Gingrich fairly be called an American anymore? He might have been born here and he currently resides here, but is he really an American? In order to be truly American, don't you have to believe in America?

If these Republicans don't believe they can defeat the terrorists without giving up our unalienable rights and our system of government, maybe they should step aside and let some real men of honor guide this country back to the path of righteousness and strength.

The Young Turks