Rick the Red's Journal: The First Amendment

Why is everyone forgetting the First Amendment? Row vs. Wade was the right decision for the wrong reason. The Supremes cited the Fourth Amendment, but the real issue is the First Amendment. The Democrats will never win the support of the majority if they continue to overlook this key point. It covers Gay marrage, abortion, privacy rights -- a host of issues where the Religious Right has hijacked the Republicans to great effect:

Whether homosexuals should marry is a "moral" issue. Whether women should be allowed to have abortions (e.g., whether abortion is murder) is a "moral" issue. Whether the Goverment has any business snooping within the walls of your house is a "moral" issue, when the reason they're snooping is to uncover "immoral" activity (adultry, fornication, dope smoking, etc.). The bottom line on "moral" issues is that there is no scientific evidence to support or reject either position. Science shows us that an unborn fetus can, under certain circumstances, survive outside the womb. But prior to that point (3 months, 4 months, 5 months, whatever) there is no scientific evidence that the fetus can survive, and no scientific evidence that the fetus is sentient -- i.e., alive. So belief that life begins at conception -- or even before, in the case of the Catholic church ("don't spill your seed") -- is exactly that, belief. As is belief that homosexuality is wrong. As is belief that the poor are poor because God is punishing them and thus our government should not help them. As is any other thing you care to believe.

Now, the thing about the First Amendment is that, despite arguements to the contrary ("the words 'seperation of church and state' don't appear anywhere in the First Amendment"), its purpose is to ensure that the Government does not tell people what to believe. That's why freedom of the press is in there with freedom of religion. It's about beliefs and values, not about religion or the press. It's saying that you can disagree with your government; your government cannot tell you what to think.

So, if the government says abortion is wrong, or homosexuality is wrong, or oral or anal sex is wrong, or sex out of wedlock is wrong, or smoking dope is wrong, or any of the hundreds of "moral values" the Republicans wish to impose upon us, THEY ARE VIOLATING THE FIRST AMENDMENT! The government cannot make you pray to the government's god, or follow that god's laws. It cannot and must not -- that's what the First Amendment is all about.

Now, I'm not defending any of these actions. I even consider some of them wrong myself. But the government has no business telling anyone that they are right or wrong -- that's a belief and it's up to each person to obtain their beliefs on their own. Your family can influence you, your church can influence you, your community's values can influence you, but your government's laws must not!

OK, I'm rambling, but my point is that John Kerry came close when he stated that he opposed abortion but couldn't force his views on others. He didn't really explain himself well, and it got maybe 10 minutes coverage in the whole, several month long campaign. The democrats have to do a better job of this. They have to own the First Amendment the way the NRA owns the Second Amendment. They have to get people voting the First Amendment as their #1 issue the way the NRA gets people to vote gun laws as their #1 issue. When the republicans complain about "activist judges" the dems need to respond that those judges are just defending the First Amendment.

I dunno. Maybe the Dems get it and assume everyone else does, too. But they don't, and I sorta doubt the Dems get it, either. Abortion is a Freedom of Religion issue. Homosexual marrage is a Freedom of Religion issue. The Democrats need to embrace the First Amendment and become the party that defends Freedom of Religion, not the party that defends homosexuals and abortionists. They need to portray the Republicans as the Party of Intolerance, which ought to be very easy to do. I know that would win them far more of Middle America than they got in this past election.

Devil's Advocate

[elmegil]

So, why can the government tell me Murder is Wrong?

Re:Devil's Advocate

[Rick the Red]

Because murder takes away the rights of others. So does stealing.

IANAL, so I don't know the legal term for this, but there are two types of laws. First, there are laws like those against murder and stealing, which exist to protect the rights of the public. These have a loose connection to religious values and beliefs, but they are argueably independent of any religion or value system. It doesn't matter to the murder victum whether or not the murderer considers murder a sin. These laws are connected to some

Re:Devil's Advocate

[elmegil]

Because murder takes away the rights of others.

There are those that argue that "forcing" them to accept gay marriage takes away their right to believe it is wrong. I'm just playing devil's advocate, by the way, no need to bring in real devils :-)

Re:Devil's Advocate

[nizo]

Not really, they (meaning the rightwingnuts) can still believe it is wrong until they die. They just shouldn't be able to force their beliefs on others who don't agree. Why this is even an issue is beyond me, why should I care who marries whom? How does another marriage cheapen my own? Then again, we need to yank this whole "marriage" thing out of the law books and insert "civil union" anyway. Marriage is a religious institution, keep it in the churches. A civil union is between any two consenting adults, I

Re:Devil's Advocate

[Rick the Red]

Thanks for saying in one paragraph what I took a whole page to try to say. :-)

Re:Devil's Advocate

[nizo]

It does scare the crap out of me that the divide between church and state is heavily eroded already and getting much worse all the time. WTF is "Under God" doing in the pledge (it was added in the 50s apparently)? WTF is "In God we trust" doing on our money?? Hello, not everyone believes in God, so why ram that belief down people's throats? But we are all preaching to the choir here I think :-) (ahh crap even our sayings are "churchist")

Re:Devil's Advocate

[October_30th]

How does another marriage cheapen my own?

I think that according to these nuts there is just one kind of correct marriage: the god-approved union between a born-man and born-woman. If anything else is allowed to be called marriage, it cheapens and waters down the true divine version of marriage.

But to be fair, not all people who oppose gay mariage and gay rights are religious. I used to work with a guy (highly educated and smart) who just couldn't handle seeing two people of the same sex kissing in publi

Re:Devil's Advocate

[Rick the Red]

You know, that one really baffles me. I'm a married heterosexual. The idea of gay marrage does not threaten me in the least. There's only one reason I can think of for why any hetero would be threated by the very idea of gay marrage: they fear that if the option were available, they might have chosen it themselves. I find that most homophobic people (that is, people truely afraid of homosexuals, and I do know a few) have homosexual tendencies that scare them to death. They are not in touch with their femini

+ 5 insightful

[tuxette]

This is one of the most brilliant posts I've read all week...

You're right on the homophobe thing. Have you ever noticed that these homophobes are more obsessed with anal sex and know more about gay porn than the average gay man?

I think they're also afraid that gay marriages will prove to be more successful than hetero marriages. I guess that's the threat? I once saw a statistic here that showed that the divorce rate among heteros here is higher than that of gay couples in civil unions.

Roe vs Wade

[Tikiman]

Roe was the wrong decision because it pre-supposed that a fetus is not entitled to full 14th Amendment protection. The Supreme Court simply substituted its own defition of "person" over the one defined by people. Note that this has nothing to do with religion - it is very natural to think that a 12 week fetus with a beating heart and brainwaves is a human being. If the people of any state want to extend 14th Amendment protection to cats and dogs, let alone pre-born human beings, they should be allowed to