Our Values Are the Target

Many times during the campaign for the White House politicians, pundits and people you never even heard of talked about how important the election of John Kerry would be to our morals and our values. The Republicans and sadly many of the Democrats think the G.O.P. has cornered the market on having values and morals. The only thing they really have cornered is the use of the words. But that is a point for another day. What is important today is the incredible fight we are facing over one of the most important fundamental principles we have in our government.

One of the most important principles we have is the protection of the minority. Not minorities as in people, but those who are not part of the majority. It has long been the role of the courts to stand up for the constitution without regard for the popular opinion. It has also been a longstanding part of our legislative process that in the United States Senate a minority could stop legislation through the use of the filibuster. The third branch of our government the Executive branch, has a power to veto which can be executed by the President of the United States. All of these measures are protections of the rights of minority opinion holders, none can be the final word, but all require a great effort to reverse.

Today, the conservative powerbrokers controlling our federal government are frustrated by the fact that they cannot simply ignore the minority opposition. They are, by and large, devout Christians. As devout Christians they are not tolerant of people who do not believe the Word as they interpret it. It is their mission to convert all who are not of their belief into becoming their fellow believers. Tolerance is reserved for people who want to wear white after Labor Day, for people who find great pleasure in building models with Popsicle sticks and those who are a little odd. There is no tolerance for people with different religious opinions, beliefs, value systems or faiths.

Pushing the conservative agenda through the White House and the House of Representatives is no difficulty at all. But there are two places where conservatives face problems. The judiciary is still not on board with the “moral majority” because many are non-conservative judges and even more importantly are strong believers that the role of the federal judges is to protect the constitution and the historical precedence of our court system. So what do you do if you are one of these “moral majority” true believers? It is simple if you truly believe your views are the only way to see things.  Change the system our Senate has used for decades by using the “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster and secondly, as strongly urged by Tom DeLay, greatly expand the public pressure put on judges by public opinion by significantly increasing congressional review of the judiciary, its operations, its proceedings and even its legal opinions.

That would constitute the most fundamental change in our governance that we have ever scene. It would create a winner take all type of government where the majority can greatly alter American life as we know it for a few years only to perhaps find that a new group is in and life changes dramatically again for a few more years. The stability that we all take for granted would be gone. Because we have never seen such dramatic change it is only possible to imagine the great swings that could occur, if one also assumes that power will change hands, ( a large assumption). Something’s could be legal one year and illegal the next. Religion would be a part of our public life one term and part of our private life the next. Our role as the world’s only superpower would be made much less predictable and would put the rest of the world on edge.

The American people are facing a dramatic challenge to our freedoms and our rights. It is our obligation to stand up for them not as good Democrats, but as good Americans. If we lay down and let Bush, DeLay, Frist and the others have their way we will have lost an America that we know and love.

Comments

[Jeff Wegerson]

Because you are a blogger on the list of progressive bloggers at DJWinfo.com, I am making this open invitation to participate as a frontpage blogger at SoapBlox Chicago, http://www.soapblox.net/chicago .

By bringing the progressive blog audience to one place we can synergize our collective influence.

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Create an account, post a diary, and I will promote you to FrontPage Blogger status. Or Just poke around and check it out.

Jeff Wegerson (wegerje)