THE CURMUDGEON CHRONICLE ©
AN IRREVERENT VIEW
Time Line: February 12, 2008
Date Line: Flemington New Jersey
A Presidential campaign manager must feel like the owner of a silk purse factory whose only raw materials source is a supplier of sow’s ears. Considering the statements candidates make on the stump it is amazing that campaigns do not have an Emergency Medical Team in attendance at all times.
Take Mr. Huckabee who wants to eliminate the separation of Church and State. If I were running his campaign I would have overdosed on Valium the day that statement was made. Yet, that sow’s ear has become a silk purse of sorts. Huckabee is considered by some to be honest, engaging, funny, forthright, helpful, friendly, brave, clean and reverent.
The concept advanced by Huckabee is of the same cloth as that used in Munich in 1932 by another man of the people. I pray it will not resonate quite as loudly as those diatribes did for a quarter of a century, through a bloody war between 1939 and 1945.
Huckabee is a dangerous candidate. As the quintessential politician he has God and the mantles of piety and poverty flying from his masthead. Who among his opponents is prepared to deny the virtues of piety and poverty or claim that God is not the right sort of example?
No one, (least of all, John McCain), has said;
“Nonsense: Our Constitution and freedoms are based on the separation of Church and State. It is because of that separation that this country has enjoyed an unparalleled record of civil unity, free of the strife that tore Bosnia and Ireland asunder in our lifetime and raged through every Western European Nation that hewed to a State religion.
“Look at the Middle East, where our children are dying daily, to see the effects of a mandated State religion. Mr. Huckabee, find another way to pander to a constituency.”
If Mr. McCain can’t take a stand on that Constitutional issue, how can I trust him to protect and defend it in every other decision a President must make? I don’t care how many medals a man may have; they are no substitute for the requirement to protect and defend the Constitution.
This election period is not unique in our history. There have been sharp divisions in public opinion before as there will be again. Those divisions do not change the thing that binds us together: the Constitution is the framework and guaranty of our freedoms and civil liberties. Whoever is elected, of whatever political stripe must protect it for us and those who come after us. We forgot that message and re-elected George Bush despite clear evidence of his disregard for the Constitution’s provisions.
The lesson is simple and compelling. If you like your way of life, you can’t give an inch. Even if the person who assaults the bulwark of the Constitution is funny, engaging, and the kind of person you would have dinner with now and then, you cannot elect him unless he meets the highest standards in the fight to protect the Constitution.
Howard Stamer
.
No comments:
Post a Comment