Further Thoughts on “Antiamericanism”
Yesterday Joe, Lamar and I sat down to record the show (you’ll see it here soon, trust me). Of course the topic of my last post came up and the conversation got me thinking. There is something more deeply disturbing about the recent comments of the McCain campaign and it’s surrogates. I’ll admit my last post may have been off the mark a bit. The constitution is amendable and thus not a good measure of ones “Americanism”.
Here’s the crux of it, it is *nearly* impossible to be an “Anti-American” American. In order to do so you would have to be in some way aiding a foreign nation in the upheaval and overthrow of the government in favor of rule by that power. The other way would be to attempt to replace the democratic nature of the American government with something less democratic (notice the small “d” here folks).
In a democratic government a nation is whatever it’s people want it to be. As long as voters are aware of a politicians stance on the issues when they are elected to office it is nearly impossible for them to be “anti-American”. This is the strength of democratic nations, it’s laws and policies are mutable. This is why perhaps the most anti-American activity i can see going on right now is the purging of voter rolls in states all across this great nation. To take away the people’s voice, their ability to affect the laws and policies of America, to choose freely those people they would have represent them in government has got to be one of the most anti-American activities I can possibly imagine.
We’ve got two election scandals going on right now, the one I hear the most about is ACORN, and I have only one thing to say about this. ACORN submits all registration cards to a local elections board it is the job of the local elections board (not ACORN) to validate these registrations. If fraud is to be committed the perpetrators will be found working for these boards, not for some non-profit community organization group. The second I hear less whining about is the massive purge of voters from the rolls, and while I assumed this was because it was probably being perpetrated by both parties I could find nothing but Republicans. These caging techniques are even more despicable in light of the recent home-foreclosure crisis.
So let’s really take a look at what being Anti-American would really consist of, and who is really guilty of such. I know, I’m a “radical militant atheist” who wants to “stamp out” all forms of religion, right? Or am I a red-white-and-blue blooded American who wants to promote debate and open conversation to ensure that all sides of the argument can speak their mind and attempt to sway those still on the fence, so that policy decisions can be made by the voters, armed with all the available information, so that they truly can make up their own minds?
To quote the great cdk007, “Think about it.”