Another Republican Meme Exposed as Bullshit

I think I might be the only person alive who remembers the summer of 2001. That August, the two biggest stories in the media (because the blogosphere didn't exist in any real way then) was people getting eaten by sharks and whether or not Congressman Gary Condit murdered his intern. After September 11, we didn't hear very much about sharks or Gary Condit at all.

The summer is the time of year for people to pretend that ridiculous shit is somehow something other than ridiculous. While I actually like watching people get consumed with nonsense, it can actually be dangerous, particularly if the idiots doing it like pretending that they're "constitutionalists."

Erik Erickson, the proprietor of redstate.com and a CNN talking head is such an idiot. Being the biggest of Republican bloggers is always a pretty good indication that you're a tool, and you don't get much bigger than Erikson.

The Cordoba House-Park 51 story is this summer's Shark Week, so people who enjoy whipping the stupid masses into a frenzy have been all over it. Red State is willingly riding the train that certifiable lunatics like Pamela Geller are driving. In doing so, they're openly exposing their dishonesty about everything they profess to believe.

Constitutionalists, of which I consider myself one, believe that constitutions mean exactly what they say, and nothing more. The United States Constitution is silent about whether "sensitivity" is predicate for pressuring someone to abandon their rights to religious freedom and private property. I've heard more talk about "sensitivity" from Republicans in the last three weeks than I have in the last thirty years. These assholes aren't just acting like liberals, they're starting to sound like liberals, too.

Once and for all, if a public pressure is used to make someone surrender their rights, they aren't really rights at all. And if this were any issue than a mosque that isn't a mosque and isn't actually at Ground Zero, they would all be taking exactly the opposite position than they are now. The hypocrisy is nothing less than breathtaking.

On Thursday, Mr, Erikson came right out and said what I've believed all along, that Republicans want to make Cordoba House a political issue, which is very different than the heretofore popular meme that "this isn't about the government stopping the mosque." I was always pretty sure that they were lying about that and, thanks to RedState, I know they are.

Go get your congress critter on video. Ask if he agrees with John Boehner that Barack Obama should ask for Tim Geithner and Larry Summers’ resignations.

Oh, and if you get your congressman to take a position on the Ground Zero Mosque, you just might get bonus points and maybe an extra prize!

Why exactly would you give a shit what a congressman or candidate thinks about Park 51 unless you actually expect them to do something about it in office? I haven't heard anyone ask that question of those bloggers, and it's pretty important, because the answer would tend to reveal lot about their fidelity to both the Constitution and conservative principles.

Rick Lazio is currently running campaign ads on stopping the alleged "Ground Zero Mosque", which certainly implies that he would use his office as governor to halt it's construction. On the other hand, Lazio is genetically programmed to lose elections, so his chances of becoming governor of New York in November are actually worse than mine are.

If the government tries to stop Cordoba House from being built in the absence of some crime, it will be in direct violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. There's no debating that. Moreover, Governor Patterson's idea of a "land swap" that Republicans, Fox News and most bloggers are so enthusiastic about would be found by any court in the land as being a violation of the First Amendment's Establishment clause.

It's possible that people like Erik Erickson are dumb enough not to know that, but I don't think they are. They're either willingly abandoning the very principles that supposedly make them conservatives in the first place, or they're dishonestly demagoguing Muslims as a campaign tactic and insisting that Republican candidates do the same.

Either way, they're a fucking embarrassment.