7.13.2004

The Politics of Hatred Rise Again

First of all, an aside: I heard a pretty good story on NPR this morning about the citation of foreign law in United States court decisions. When the story first began, my initial thought was, “Of course you can’t cite other nations’ laws in our court rulings.” But, as is so often the case, it’s not quite so black-and-white as I initially thought. Give it a listen.

ConstitutionBut now, the call to arms: The time has come. The United States Senate has decided to forge ahead and defecate on the United States Constitution. (I’ll concede that my metaphors have become a tad scatological on this subject, what with my earlier assessment that little George was pissing on it. What can I say? The description is particularly appropriate.)

Now, in an effort not to dwell exclusively on the negative, I have endeavored to seek out something positive in this action, and I believe that — after a sizable amount of investigation — I have found it. There is a singular educational opportunity present here: While it is patently evident that any Senator supporting this bill is the paradigmatic example of scum, there are in fact two entirely separate sorts of scum involved here. I hold that a careful evaluation of the difference may prove edifying.

The first sort of scum is that which truly and wholeheartedly supports the notion of amending the Constitution to enshrine the actual prohibition of civil rights on a portion of the population. This despite the only historical precedent for such action — the one commonly referred to by the very word “prohibition” — having had a less than positive effect on the nation as a whole, to say nothing of the inanity of inserting a matter of ordinary stature law into the structural underpinning of the nation (an issue I have discussed previously). This is perhaps the more repugnant of the two varieties, in that — even ignoring the lack of respect for basic legal rights issue at stake — it shows neither understanding nor respect for the document that provides the very structure of our nation. A document that, when taken along with its amedments, is unique in its enumeration of the rights granted — not forbidden — to its citizens. In other words, this variety is actively anti-American, a quality which could be understood, if not endorsed, in the world outside our borders (to each his own), but certainly not in the very legislative representatives of the nation they — by their actions — profess to abhor.

The second variety, though perhaps in some respects less overtly vile, is in reality equally insidious. This is the variety that does understand that such an amendment is wrong (do please see the dictionary definition of “understatement”), but chooses to support it anyway, in a transparent attempt to appeal to the all-powerful right-wing extremist GOP “base.” Of course, perhaps my lessened condemnation of this variety is misguided, in that the sheer number of politicians of this stripe is so prevalent throughout history that familiarity has rendered them less vomit-inducing.

U.S. SenateVoting is scheduled to take place tomorrow, and while the likelihood of any Senator actually being influenced by his consituents hovers somewhere around zero (if not venturing into the negative), I will still encourage one and all to do what they can to contact their Senators and make it clear that — while their decisions on this may not be swayed — the consequences of such a decision cannot be escaped. I find it most curious: While the term “un-American” is thankfully less prevalent in the present day, even rarer is the individual who would choose to affix himself with that label, as support for this bill most emphatically does.

Incidentally, if some Senators seem intent on defecating on the very fabric of the nation, I think it only appropriate to publish a “shit list” right here. The contact information will most likely be just that which is available to the public at large (though even so, it frequently requires digging around in some source code), but in the admittedly unlikely event that I’m able to come across a more effective way to ensure that your elected leaders actually see your messages (come on, do you really believe any Senator reads a single message sent to his “official” email address?), then I’ll be sure to pass that information along. Strictly in the interests of effective governance, you understand.

That said, I will refrain from “blacklisting” most Senators before the vote — after all, one’s intended decision can certainly change before tomorrow — but I feel no need to accord such a courtesy to those actually sponsoring this abomination. So please, pass along your most eloquent expression of eternal condemnation (but no threats, please — with as limited a readership as I have, I can’t afford to have any of you carted off to Gitmo by the secret police) to:

Senator Wayne Allard of “the Hate State” (though Virginia’s been giving it a run for its money of late) and initial sponsor of the bill, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Thad Cochran and Trent Lott of Mississippi, Larry Craig and Michael Crapo of Idaho, Michael Enzi of Wyoming, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois, Bill Frist of Tennessee, Orrin Hatch of Utah (FYI, it took me quite a while to find that e-mail address; he’s gone out of his way to hide it, no doubt after his hypocritical endorsement of hacking attacks against software pirates — while his own website was using pirated software), Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Zell Miller of Georgia, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (he’s gone pretty far to hide his e-mail address as well, encoding all of the text in ISO entity numeric code — who does he think he’s fooling?), Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby of Alabama, and Jim Talent of Missouri. (I don’t think I need mention that — with the curious exception of Zell Miller — they’re all Republicans.)

Some of those addresses may not get through, since the majority of them were culled from the source code of the form pages the Senators have set up on their official sites. After all, why should they have to deal with the spam the rest of us have to wade through? And if that’s the case, feel free to visit their official contact pages to drop them a line. Not that those messages will get through either, but if life gets uncomfortable enough for the weasel who does have to read through them, it’s certainly conceivable that a message might get passed along...

Don’t be shy, now. Share with them the lessons we’ve all learned here today.

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