Tom DeLay: Might Makes Right
I thought we had resolved this issue...
Tom Delay believes otherwise and is constantly using all the might at his disposal to incorporate the concept into the US government. In a May 6th New York Times Op-Ed piece, Delay is quoted as saying "We set up the courts ... We can unset the courts. We have the power of the purse."
I will not argue against the idea of "the power of the purse" or that Wealth is Power. I'll not, though I did in my youth, disparage that idea either. I will argue that this is evidence of Delay's, and his commrades', mentality of Power over All People, and that it illustrates quite starkly why there IS an establishment clause in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
I've heard repeatedly and inanely the red-herring that a Secular government equals an Anti-religious government. This bogus and disingenous argument is only used by people who believe that anything that is not for them is against them. While that concept may not be so inane in time of war (see the Catholic Church's "neutrality" during Nazi Germany's wolrd take-over attempt in WWII) Delay is under the delusion that only Christians, the majority religious sect in our country, have the fundamental right to set Law and Morality for all people who reside here, as if to let opinions other than their own have a say would be equivalent to allowing an enemy to man your guns during battle. He believes, honestly it appears, and vocipherously, that Democracy means Majority Rules and Minority Submits. What he utterly fails to comprehend is that democracy cannot and does not work if the majority does not exist in harmony with the minority.
Taking the extreme position allows for parties who gain even bare majority support, for whatever reason, the ability to utterly disregard and even eradicate the rights of nearly half of a population. Majorities can set the tone and steer the debate, but if they do so without contributions from and understanding of the minorities with whom they share the resources of their nation, they will fail in their duty to all the people whom they serve and represent. The alternative to failing to subjugate the minority completely or compromise with them is ultimately Holocaust: the destruction of everything.
Tom Delay believes otherwise and is constantly using all the might at his disposal to incorporate the concept into the US government. In a May 6th New York Times Op-Ed piece, Delay is quoted as saying "We set up the courts ... We can unset the courts. We have the power of the purse."
I will not argue against the idea of "the power of the purse" or that Wealth is Power. I'll not, though I did in my youth, disparage that idea either. I will argue that this is evidence of Delay's, and his commrades', mentality of Power over All People, and that it illustrates quite starkly why there IS an establishment clause in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
I've heard repeatedly and inanely the red-herring that a Secular government equals an Anti-religious government. This bogus and disingenous argument is only used by people who believe that anything that is not for them is against them. While that concept may not be so inane in time of war (see the Catholic Church's "neutrality" during Nazi Germany's wolrd take-over attempt in WWII) Delay is under the delusion that only Christians, the majority religious sect in our country, have the fundamental right to set Law and Morality for all people who reside here, as if to let opinions other than their own have a say would be equivalent to allowing an enemy to man your guns during battle. He believes, honestly it appears, and vocipherously, that Democracy means Majority Rules and Minority Submits. What he utterly fails to comprehend is that democracy cannot and does not work if the majority does not exist in harmony with the minority.
Taking the extreme position allows for parties who gain even bare majority support, for whatever reason, the ability to utterly disregard and even eradicate the rights of nearly half of a population. Majorities can set the tone and steer the debate, but if they do so without contributions from and understanding of the minorities with whom they share the resources of their nation, they will fail in their duty to all the people whom they serve and represent. The alternative to failing to subjugate the minority completely or compromise with them is ultimately Holocaust: the destruction of everything.
I think a related characteristic of this president and administration is the tendency to surround themselves with the like-minded. Not listening to diverging viewpoints can lead to terrible blunders. For example, invading a country with an insufficient number of ground forces to keep chaos from breaking out.
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