The Tyranny of Flag Waving Rights Stealing Republicans Tarnishes Independence Day [View all]

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http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/04/tyranny-flag-waving-rights-stealing-republicans-tarnishes-independence-day.html

The Tyranny of Flag Waving Rights Stealing Republicans Tarnishes Independence Day

By: Rmuse
Jul. 4th, 2013




As Americans take time to reflect on and celebrate the day the Founding Fathers declared the 13 colonies’ independence from what the they called English tyranny with flag waving, parades, and firework displays, a growing segment of the population are exploring new ways to subvert other citizens’ freedoms and expressing their desire to reinstate the same conditions that drove colonists to break away from England 237 years ago. It is little surprise that those who most demand freedom and complain their liberties are being trampled asunder are looking to a repressive nation as a model to suppress other Americans’ basic rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, and in an affront to the nation’s founders are using religious grounds as a reason to attempt abolishing some Americans’ “freedom of speech” and “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” So-called social conservatives love to wrap themselves in the flag and claim the Constitution as their own, and are wont to tout their man-god Ronald Reagan’s courage in standing up to the Soviet Union. However, now they are expressing unflagging support and glowing admiration for the former Soviet Union’s tyranny as the model they yearn to follow in preventing all Americans from exercising their Constitutional rights.

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During the campaign for the presidency last year, every major Republican candidate, including Willard Romney, signed on to the National Organization for Marriage’s pledge of allegiance and obedience to subvert the Constitution and any American who failed to adhere to the organization’s religious-based edicts. The signers pledged to enact a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, nominate U.S. Supreme Court and federal bench judges committed to reject the idea of a right to gay marriage, and establish a presidential commission on religious liberty to investigate Americans who have been harassed or threatened for organizing, speaking, donating or voting for marriage and to propose new protections. Although the entire NOM pledge is abhorrent, the last aspect poses the greatest danger to gay and same-sex marriage advocates. Anti-gay crusaders regard supporting marriage equality as harassment and a threat to their religious liberty, and a presidential commission empowered to “propose new protections” portends “crackdowns on gay rights supporters,” that, like Texas’s Lt. Governor’s threat, would mean imprisonment for Americans exercising their right of freedom of speech and peaceably to assemble.

It is possible America has faced home-grown threats to democracy in the past, but never to the extent the people are witnessing today. Freedom of speech and assembly are labeled “anarchy” and “mob rule,” journalists threatened with imprisonment by evangelical politicians, and opponents of marriage equality look with admiration to Vladimir Putin for clues on how to crackdown on gay rights in America. There are two significant factors driving the elimination of democracy and constitutional rights; Republicans and religious extremists in the states, and if any American thinks the fascists will not enact crackdowns at the national level they are either blind or willing participants in what will be the end of democracy. Republicans in states, with the blessing of the ALEC Supreme Court, have already taken major steps to eliminate voting rights, and in state after state women are being denied their right to reproductive health choices. Republicans are openly defying the Supreme Court’s gay rights decisions as “anti-biblical ideologies,” and using religious language to force women into becoming perpetual birth machines.

Americans should enjoy Independence Day, and likely one or two will reflect on the freedoms the Founders fought to provide for future generations of Americans. However, with conservatives teaching America’s students revisionist religious history, transform freedom of speech and assembly into “anarchy” and “mob rule,” and “social conservatives” seek Russian guidance to crackdown on liberty, the freedoms Americans once enjoyed will only be a reflection. Sadly, while the people wave their flags, watch fireworks, and attend parades, Republicans and “social conservatives” are hard at work assaulting liberty with impunity. Happy Fourth of July.