Do I need to explain again why an amendment to make burning the flag a crime is a terrible idea? Jim did a good job yesterday afternoon, but anybody who has the faintest understanding of the importance of liberty to the tradition of American democracy gets it. If we make unpopular political speech illegal, we will no longer be a free nation.
Better to burn the flag than to shred the Constitution.
It’s a point so simple, so fundamentally American, that even some Republican politicians get it. Republican Senators Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had the decency to vote against the flag burning amendment today.
So how come 13 Democrats could not summon the same decency? The following thirteen Democratic senators brought shame to themselves by joining the Republicans and voting for the frivolous amendment when it came up for a vote today.
The amendment failed by just one vote. That means that if Senators Chafee and McConnell had not done the right thing and voted against the amendment, it would have passed, and it would have done so because of the craven politics of these Democrats:
Max Baucus of Montana
Evan Bayh of Indiana
Mark Dayton of Minnesota
Diane Feinstein of California
Johnson of South Dakota
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana
Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas
Bob Menendez of New Jersey
Bill Nelson of Florida
Ben Nelson of Nebraska
Harry Reid of Nevada
Ken Salazar of Colorado
Debbie Stabenow of Michigan
Note that among these Democrats is Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate Democrats. For the leader of the Democrats in the United States Senate to collaborate with the Republicans to advance a right wing agenda in this manner is unforgiveable. Senator Reid should step down from his position as minority leader. Today, Senator Reid demonstrated that he is not qualified to speak for the Democrats.
Also among these Democrats is Evan Bayh, who thinks he deserves to be President of the United States. Uh-uh, Evan.
Once again Ken Salazar is embarrassing the entire state of Colorado and me. GOD we need to get rid of this guy!
Pauly
Washington D.C. has become a laughing stock to the rest of the world. They’ve done more to tarnish and ruin brand America over the past 6 years than at any other time in history. We were once respected and admired, but now are no longer trusted by even our former allies. We set a bad example that the right-wingers in other countries have emulated (notably Australia and now even Canada) and it has set the world back to a time of greedy, nationalistic, callous, shallow, and corrupt leadership in a lot of policies and attitudes. The American Century is over, and our super-power (some foreigners refer to us a stupor-power)status will soon follow (especially as our standard of living begins to fall in the years to come as a result of the massive debt Bush drove us into).