Last Observation of the Week

I am heading to Vermont to ski this week as it finally snowed enough to cover up the rocks on the double diamond trails I enjoy challenging myself on, but before I go I would like to observe the inconsistency of the Tea Party.

They claim that they are seekers of Constitutional purism, such as "Live Free or Die"and "Don't Tread on Me".  Yet, they want to end the separation of church and state.  28% of voters, which is the approximate level of the population that self identifies with the Tea Party, want to end the separation of church and state, which is the very first Bill of Rights.  The U.S. was founded on the premise that there would be no state religion and that the state would have no influence on any religion. Implicit in that is that no religion can use the government to promote their beliefs.  That means every religion is free to do what they want.  The proponents of ending the separation of church and state want to create an Evangelical Protestant "Islamic like" state.  As a member of the Hebrew tribe I find that as objectionable as I do any pure Islamic state.  And I am sure my acquaintances of other non-evangelical religions do too.  Don't tread on our rights.

Now where is the inconsistency.  The Tea Party is picking and choosing which parts of the Constitution they feel are inalienable.  They claim that they believe in limited government and that is somewhere in the Constitution.  Well certain limitations are in the Constitution and have been clarified by the Judicial Branch over the last 230 years.  But taxes are not unconstitutional.  Otherwise, why would the marginal income tax rate in the 1950's have been 90% (now I will state that is a confiscatory level that I do not believe in) and it was politics that put it there and lowered it from there.

Separation of church and state is in the Constitution, but the Tea Party is saying that the Constitution is an endorsement of the Christianity and allows them to use the government to promote their views.  That is flat out wrong and is not limited government.  The Tea Party is being self serving hypocritical when they say they believe in limited government in one place and not another.  They are being very radical in demanding that their views be implemented in the Constitution.  Now that is their political right to try and bring about through a Constitutional Amendment, but they should not claim that the founders endorsed it.  There is no evidence that the founders endorsed any specific religion and in fact many of them appear to have been agnostic.

The Constitution allows each individual to practice what they want to in compliance with the laws of the United States of America.  It also demands that every one respect what each other wants to do, whether it be one of the many forms of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hindu or Atheism.