Actually we do, but listening to certain people talk around Washington, I wonder whether there are people around on the right who actually believe that.
__________________________________________
Strange it is, that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free discussion, but object to their being “pushed to an extreme”; not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
__________________________________________
In normal times, the following would be a fairly innocuous statement: I am for the 14th amendment. It is after all part of the bill of rights. But these times are anything but normal. So divisive are the politics of this day and age, that basic freedoms and simple concepts placed within the the bill of rights, are somehow deemed Un-American, or at the very least improper, because of the power of the media to sway minds by making cases that would seem absurd in normal circumstances. As if simply by making a case for questioning the Bill of Rights, it somehow validates the questioning, makes it plausible.
When Sens. John McCain and Jeff Sessions join a chorus of idiots in calling for hearings into whether we should get rid of even a portion, even a single sentence of the 14th amendment of OUR bill of rights, he sent a sign to all the freedom haters of America. A sign that says, if we don’t like our freedoms, lets just have a hearing and see if it’s OK to get rid of the ones we don’t like.
It’s really only one sentence they say, one little sentence. We’ll change it so people who aren’t born here who have children here won’t be allowed citizenship, they say. Do you want to know what a great many Americans say?
LEAVE THE BILL OF RIGHTS ALONE.
_________________________________________
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
Abraham Lincoln
_________________________________________
Viddy of the day: Thom Hartmann talking about Immigration.
_________________________________________
Tuesday’s links:
United States Vs. Wong Kim Ark
Republicans want review of birthright citizenship
_________________________________________
If you change one sentence of it, you can change another sentence, to deal with a pesky problem in the prevailing political winds in the future.
And of such actions is oppression born. Do we want those who come after us to think we, any of us, thought it fair, or good or right, to tear out freedoms from one of our most important documents, and the one that actually guarantees our freedoms, no less? Let’s look at the actual problem here.
Children being born on our shores, by mothers who are not citizens. Illegal immigration is an issue, but you want to fight about this particular bit? Seriously? Those infants are…what? A threat to our way of life? In what way? What are the grounds upon which you are actually going to alter the Bill of Rights? How deeply will you affect Illegal immigration by denying a child citizenship? I see no realistic effect on Illegal immigration. Or do you think a few words will stop people from coming across the border when fear of death itself does little to stop them now?
Please. George Bush’s tax cuts are more of an existential threat to the populace than Juan and Esmerelda’s baby(to pull two Spanish sounding names out at random) is. Sens. Kyl, McCain, Graham and Sessions attack on the worthiness of the first sentence of the 14th amendment is seriously a much greater threat to our freedom than any Honduran trying to have a baby in Texas. Or Arizona. Or… wait… I see a pattern, and maybe just a little bit of funny.
These children are being born in red states to parents who would, when they become citizens in all likelihood vote democratic, remembering how they were treated by those self serving right wingers, and those children would in time do the same, just like generations of Latino immigrants have before. These Republicans are trying to keep them out to keep their strongholds for future generations of Republicans, so they can stay Republican strongholds, by any means necessary.
Ya know, they might vote for you more often if you were just nicer to them, worked with them, and stopped calling them wetbacks and other epithets. Srsly.
These right wingers really don’t have to go changing the Bill of Rights just to save their political hides, or score political points. They could just try to pass proper immigration reform legislation, hell they might like to try proposing it. T’would be nice. But then again, they like kinda stupid crap. Proof?
Think about this, they created (out of thin air, flag burning never being a serious threat to America, ever) the waste of space that was the flag burning amendment, trying to make it look like they’re patriotic while doing the bidding of their corporate masters(that is, perhaps, why most of them bear a passing resemblance to Quasimodo) and hold power through fear, and steal freedom in the name of profits. Or the defense of 
marriage act, partly because they… well… because they’re scared of gay people. Probably afraid they’ll catch it (that’s just how they think, the bozos) and become gay themselves, I guess. Bunch of stinking Anti-American right wing homophobes.
Oh, and one other thing back on point. Amending the constitution takes a super-majority in both houses and then ratification by 3/4 of the states. Do you seriously think, with the nation as bitterly divided on this subject as on any other, that any attempt to alter the 14th amendment will succeed with those requirements needing to be met?
Not gonna happen. Buenas noches, America.
