Hypocrites Ignore the First Amendment

Hypocrisy is all around us, but none so great as that of the conservative Republicans who claim they believe in the Constitution of the United States, yet support policies that contradict their words.  You cannot pick and choose which constitutional amendment you will abide by.  If you insist on our country abiding by a certain amendment, you should then support them all.   Either you “is or you ain’t a constitutionalist.”  For instance, there are those that would lay down their life to protect the rights afforded by Amendment 2 of the Constitution.  Amendment 2 protects the right to bear arms.  The question is, are you also willing to support Amendment 1 as vigorously as you do Amendment 2?

Amendment 1, the first of 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights, written by our founding fathers, was surely the most important and foremost element of democracy based on the prominent placing of this amendment.  To refresh your memory, here is Amendment 1:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This weekend, President Trump signed an Executive Order to ban travel from seven countries consisting predominately of Muslims.  Muslims practice Islam as a religion!  If you believe Trump’s hype, all Muslim’s are killers. I suggest, no more than all Christians are killers. We all knew he said he would ban all Muslims during his campaign rallies.  However, you, me and I daresay his “base,” thought it would be done in a humane and thoughtful manner.  One would think certain planning and directives would be instituted before slamming the door shut.  The haphazard manner in which this Executive Order was implement created a hot mess.

Banning people from our country based on religion is NOT consistent with our democracy.  However, the people protesting at all the airports in this country IS consistent with our democracy and based on Constitutional Amendment 1, they are defending our Constitution.  As Thomas Jefferson said, “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”

While we’re talking about Amendment 1, let’s discuss freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  President Trump announced this week that the Media was an opposition party.  I’ve told you many times how Trump implants his crazy ideas in your brain--by repetition. “Lying media.  Lying media.”  How many times have you heard that?  Trump demonizes the media every time a microphone is in front of his mouth. Last week, Steve Bannon, Trump’s Chief Strategist and Counselor visited the New York Times and told them they needed to “keep their mouth shut.”  Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to President Trump said, “The media figures who criticize President Trump should be fired.”  Her panties were in a wad because she was ridiculed for saying that the Trump facts were “alternative facts.”  Oh, I digress. 

Trump and the Trump whisperers are sadly mistaken if they think they can keep the media from printing and reporting the truth.  The media is all that stands between an authoritarian government and us.  Those that think the media should “keep their mouth shut” and let Trump run willy-nilly over our republic do not believe in the Constitution and are hypocrites.

One person who is not a hypocrite is Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief whisperer.  He has never boasted about loving the Constitution.  Bannon and his Breitbart News is the father of fake news.  He declared his Breitbart News as the “platform of the alt-right” in 2016. He has deep ties to white nationalists, racists, and anti-Semites.  In 2014, Bannon compared himself to the Russian revolutionary Lenin. "He wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too,” The Daily Beast quoted him as saying. "I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment."

It is becoming more apparent with each Executive Order Trump signs, that Steve Bannon is President Trump’s chief architect.  On Friday, Trump signed an Executive Order that gave Steve Bannon an additional job…he gave him a seat at the table of the National Security Council as a permanent member.  As if that was not hair-raising enough, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence were not included as permanent members but on a “we’ll call you if we need you” basis.  Who do you think will call the shots on our national security now?  Steve Bannon and Lt. General Mike Flynn, Putin’s good buddy.  Sweet dreams!

More bad news.  I heard Ann’s Deli is closing shortly.  As much as we will miss them, we can’t blame them for moving on to the best part of their life—retirement!  Stop by and wish them well.