Taking a Stand for Freedom

"Let’s hope that as talk radio hosts find time for reflection, and commentators step back to take a deep breath, they will recall that one of the most hopeful aspects of the current conservative revival is its reclamation of the American constitutionalist tradition. That tradition is anchored even beyond the Constitution, of course, in the Declaration of Independence. And that document, let’s not forget, proclaims that, 'Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.'

An American conservatism that looks back to 1776 cannot turn its back on the Egyptian people. We should wish them well—and we should work to help them achieve as good an outcome as possible."

from The Weekly Standard

The above was penned by Bill Kristol, a man I normally have very little time for.  In fact, on more than one occasion, in the heat of intoxicated argument, I have demanded he be brought before the Hague and tried for war crimes (how is that for championing civil discourse?).  However, a call to honor the commitment to liberty and the revolutionary courage of our forefathers, that I can get behind.  It is bizarre that self proclaimed standard-bearers on both sides of our debilitating political discourse always take these calls for rhetorical consistency, for a return to core ideas and values, as acts of heresy.

I also have to show a little begrudging respect to the libertarian Republican house members who stood by their convictions and voted against the PATRIOT ACT renewal.  There is a lot I do not like about the tea party movement, but if just a few of these men and women continue to vote their conscience the dynamic inside the beltway may be better for it.  It will surely give their benefactors a shock to the system.

Did anyone look up from the chip bowl long enough before the supergame to witness this madness:

It was a very surreal experience.  Not the heavy handed patriotism laced into our media/sporting events, <911 I have made my peace with that.  It was the total strangeness of having soldiers and aged athletes perform a cold reading of what is essentially a revolutionary manifesto.  

The Constitution is our founding document, it codifies basic rights and freedoms and puts in place protections for those rights and freedoms.  It does not sound that odd when read aloud by school children.  The Declaration of Independence is a document of a different stripe.  Its lines call out an occupying power on its many grievances.  The words "tyrant" and "despotism" appear to great effect.  It demands certain rights with the explicit threat that if these rights are withheld they will be taken by force.

No matter how dryly one reads "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." from a teleprompter it will still carry a touch of menace, that goes double if one is surrounded by uniformed soldiers on the deck of an aircraft carrier.