"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson
One of the most bothersome things about the current incarnation of the Republican Party has to be their sheer hypocrisy when it comes to the concept of liberty. To hear them tell it, they're "strict constitutionalists," but how strict are they, really? Just look at the Bill of Rights, for example. Except for the right to bear arms, which they exaggerate greatly, they don't seem to care much about the rights the rest of us hold dear.
Amendment I -- Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Republicans really hate this one, although they pretend to love the religion part, because they think it'll get them votes. But really, when they talk about "freedom of religion," beside the fact that it's usually phony, they tend to mean their own freedom to annoy you with their religion. They want to be able to preach to you at will, and to create laws that conform to their religious views, without regard to anyone else's. But if anyone, including other Christians, want to remove the Ten Commandments from the secular courthouse, or make sure their kids don't feel forced to say a prayer before or after school, they scream about it at the top of their lungs, and complain that their religious freedom is being infringed somehow. And don't even discuss putting a “mosque” in an old Burlington Coat Factory in the neighborhood where the World Trade Center once stood, because that will make them crazy.
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