On January 4, 2011, in an editorial on the Opinion Pages of the New York Times, readers are treated to something that we rarely get to experience: a full-out display of ignorance and fundamental misinterpretation of how the world works.
In the editorial “Pomp and Little Circumstance,” readers are told that reading the Constitution on the house floor is a “presumptuous and self-righteous act” rather than a message to everyone that those we have elected to create laws should be familiar with those rules that constrain them. The writer goes on to pathetically attempt to bring race into the question by stating [with an implied nod and wink to those who, like him, incorrectly believe that the Constitution specifies race in Article1, Section2, Paragraph3 of the Constitution] “Certainly the Republican leadership is not trying to suggest that African-Americans still be counted as three-fifths of a person.” One must wonder whether it is commonplace for this author to thinks solely of African –Americans in terms of slavery.
Next, the reader is treated to this bit of tripe: “There is a similar air of vacuous fundamentalism in requiring that every bill cite the Constitutional power given to Congress to enact it” and that “it is the judiciary that ultimately decides when a law in unconstitutional, not the transitory occupant of the speaker’s chair.”
It is interesting here to see how the thought process of the writer [and I use this term very loosely here] works. For this writer, it would appear that we would only be living in a perfect world if those representatives we have elected to create federal laws were as ignorant as he of the constraints that are imposed on them by the Constitution and to make any law they desire in hopes that, if they overstep their bounds, the Supreme Court will be there to make things right.
This belief, in addition to being odiously simplistic, is akin to telling your teenagers to drive as fast as she wants and as wildly as she wants when she gets her driver’s license because the Police are there to determine if she is doing anything wrong; it is akin to having a pharmacist give you the key to the pharmacy and telling you to take drugs until you feel better and that a doctor will determine if you have done things correctly after you are through.
This belief is so irrational that it borders on the insane.
It is of little wonder that the circulation of the New York Times is down nearly 10% from 2009 to 2010. With giants of the mind such as the author of this editorial, I have little doubt that they will be able to increase this percentage in 2011….
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