Some ideas to fix the Democratic Party's sink in the polls. Messaging again.

Recent polls show that Trump's policies take a dive, but the Democratic Party takes one, too. That has got to be fixed. A damning finding in recent polls that show Trump is underwater in public policy issues, but the trust in Congressional Democrats is even worse. Americans Still Trust Donald Trump Over Democrats  Democrats have been floundering around with messages that are almost all anti-Trump. Still, they have not been able to offer a vision of what they can offer that is a positive alternative to MAGA. Here are some thoughts for some rephrasing. They are the flip side of Trump's negatives expressed in positives and based on values as umbrellas over issues   Resistance is still the strongest message, but that is helped by Trump's own failures on the economy and creating chaos amid incompetence, for which he is taking the blame. It has little to do with anything the Democratic party made happen, but was of Trump's own doing..  Will Democrats come out with something meaningful for the future, too, that is different from just warming up stale toast phrases of the past ? 

Messages on "cultural issue" emphasize fairness 

Fear of revenge using government tools or access to the President as favors will not be tolerated. 

 Strengthen  and protect our Constitutional democracy and the rule of law 

 Acting humanely is  a value we support 

Strengthen the middle class and  working people's standard of living .  

Reform government functions to provide better customer services and staffed with non-partisan personnel who are chosen by ability and merit

 Restore the US  leadership in the world so we can influence what is good for our own national interests 

For the case for each, continue:

Waiting for a Trump-like demagogue to arise on the Democrats' side has just not happened.  Once in a while, lightning strikes Democrats with an Obama able to deliver soaring oratory and a media presence.  Instead, Democrats will have to rely on messaging delivered clearly and in simple words with an appeal that is as broad as their historical values permit. There will be lots of voices, but even then, there needs to be common themes for the greatest impact, and still, there is no one coordinating this, not even in Congress, or in the Democratic National Committee. 

While it is easy to be the party of resistance to Trump's arrogant power grabs and insensitivity to economic populist concerns, polls also show Trump is losing independents, even chunks of blue-collar, non-college-educated voters, which is likely due to Bernie Sanders and AOC's anti-oligarch tour.   Hispanics who boosted him into his second term are also fleeing MAGA. Democrats need to get real. 2024 was a rejection of the party's policy priorities on the economy and "cultural issues," and that hangover is still there.   What is missing are themes that indicate what the Democrats would do in the future besides being resistant to Trump's unpopular policies. 

Resistance is still the strongest message, but that is helped by Trump's own failures on the economy and creating chaos amid incompetence, for which he is taking the blame. It has little to do with the Democratic Party's strategy.  Repeating past themes was not a winner for Democrats either.  

 Democrats also must consider the possibility that Trump, faced with bad polls and crashing Wall Street, and an alarmed GOP about the 2026 midterms, could cause him to reverse course on key issues. He certainly has demonstrated flexibility, so much so that he has created instability by nearly daily changing positions. There are vulnerabilities like corruption and self-dealing that could also become enduring resistance themes, and the damage he has done to the economy could linger despite any policy adjustments that last all the way to midterms.  Corruption has yet to be made into a big issue, but it is ripe to make it a big deal already. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump's grift: grist for the impeachment mill?

The peaceful street demonstrations, led by non-partisan outsiders, like 50501 and Indivisible, contain many clues about resistance themes that are umbrellas for various Trump initiatives that fuel public anger. "Hands off 'social security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and our Constitutional democracy has caught on. That theme has legs that last longer than just months because it encompasses so many victims or potential victims regardless of party, race, or religion..  

So, what are the positives that Democrats can offer going forward? Maybe even those too cowardly to take Trump directly on, could at least support positive, constructive statements. Here are some ideas to consider. These fortify values all Democrats support, and getting a consensus on the umbrella positions should not be that hard.They still can't help but reflect the resistance themes, but they can be rephrased in the positive: They also can rephrase popular historical themes wth broad appeal while contrasting their values with MAGA's. The problem is keeping the Democratic party's shopping list from getting tied up in details. Still, it is better if they stick to themes that are broad umbrellas that avoid jargon and technical terms and focus on the impact on ordinary people's lives. The details do not have to be ignored, but they need to constantly be related to the umbrella theme. For example, inflation and/or recession are indeed  concerns because they harm the middle class who still have budgets they need to balance. 

 How about Democrats' messages on "cultural issue" emphasize fairness? For example, observe and support Constitutional protections of individual rights, instead of subverting them with threats of persecution and favoring one race or ideology over another.

I notice that the word "fair" permeates these  other suggestions as well.

 How about a government that will treat all fairly without fear or favor? (As opposed to white Christian nationalist stranglehold on the GOP with Project 2025, under the guise of anti-DEI,  that is being implemented by Trump's appointees, the writers of the Project, to key personnel positions in his administration.) . This use of fear and favor accounts for the attack on academic freedom and autocratic control over thought, expression, speech, and and press that demand toeing the ideological line of that ideology at the risk of losing funding.  Fear of revenge using government tools or access to the President as favors will not be tolerated. 

The issue of fairness is also relevant to immigration policy. While all would like to see criminals without documentation of legal status deported, the recent Trump shift is to family separation and due process for non-gang-related undocumented people.  How we administer deportation is as important as what we do about immigration. Acting humanely is also a value we support instead of acting cruelly.   Cruelty should never be a strategy. Instead, we should fund effective border security in compliance with the rule of law. That is the fair way. Trump had made headway on stopping illegal border crossings. Still, he is now underwater because of failure or flubs in mass deportation or following due process, even the Supreme Court ruled 9-0, to which deportees were entitled. Trump's declining favorability in polls, even on his signature issue of mass deportation, indicates that even some of his supporters still value fairness and are uncomfortable with cruelty.

How about a promise to strengthen our Constitutional democracy  and the rule of law(as opposed to grabbing power for the executive branch that grants power to a wannabe dictator). This is the opposite of respecting and abiding by the judicial branch. At issue is a subset of who controls the courts.  Trump is testing how far he can go in defying court orders, and arresting or impeaching judges who do not abide by Trump ideology or policies.  

 Issues to watch develop:  Issues to watch: Trump's use of active military to enforce domestic laws: on the road to fascism. https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/trumps-expanded-domestic-military-use-should-worry-us-all?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ9rTFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFxa3RZYUk1eGNIUzZvRDh4AR5FNQQWstd9vC-72FR1pc7wavt5RbVDFxwmOxy0x-ey1rLnUpffrb2XL46vXw_aem_2A5GiPRJPFYVUySi8-cVsQ

https://newrepublic.com/article/194463/100-days-trump-clown-show-fascism

How about favoring strengthening the middle class and  working people's standard of living (instead of the very rich and billionaires) in economic policies? A correlative is how about requiring federal budgets and new legislation to have realistic payfors and be fair to the middle class as well as to the poor and sick people, instead of padding bank accounts of those who are already ultra-rich?  This may be the most fertile ground because most people are sensitive to both prices and service, accessibility, competence, and responsiveness, and it impacts most people of various demographics and similar income levels.

How about reforming government functions to provide better customer services and staffed with non-partisan personnel who are chosen by ability and merit (instead of loyalty to a certain ideology or person) 

 While foreign policy is never high on voters' minds unless we are involved in a major war, how about involvement in the world in ways that restores US in leadership in the world so we can influence what is good for our own national interests  (instead of letting our adversaries fill a leadership vacuum with China and Russia). We should strengthen NATO, support Ukraine, counter Chinese attempts to control economies and governments in Africa and Southeast Asia, because withdrawal (isolationism) only strengthens our adversaries' power for their national agenda, which is not ours.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: A proposition: a loose coalition of many with the theme: Save our democracy

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Democracy in context: abstract vs reality. Messaging again.

Pete's Opening Message, Live in Iowa  Pete Buttigieg sets the stage by 1)saying the Party cannot go back like it was before 2) and must come up with a new approach.  

Relying on media for research is like buying a used car

 A recent posting on a private political Facebook group posed an interesting question.  It came from a person who usually was known for reproducing MAGA memes. Most memes are someone else's opinions that also ring a bell with your opinions. only it articulates it better... Liberals, this meme complained, condemn people who like doing their own research and that is what good consumers do.   What's wrong with that? If you are forwarding memes others authored is just that, a way to say I agree...  All it does is give you confidence that someone else agrees with your opinion and likes it, too. But it may deserve a rebuttal, a response, too. This one did. 

  I replied to the passed-on meme this way.:"Smart consumers also know the difference between deceptive, false, and puff advertising and seek authoritative and independent information from more than one source. . The old saying: garbage in, garbage out applies here. Too bad there is not a Better Business Bureau for politics. There is not a Federal Trade Commission demanding truth in advertising for politicians. "  

Assume you are now doing your research:  You run across a quotation or facts, or alternative facts, an opinion, and you want to sort the nuggets from the trash.  Going back to the consumer analogy, here is some advice:  treat it like buying a used car:.

Buying a used car, especially from an unlicensed individual, is a tricky business. It is buyer beware. Politicians can lie, cherry-pick and twist data, and even promote just about everything they want and it is sheltered by the First Amendment. For those doing their own research in politics, it is the wild west out there, just like buying that used car from a stranger.  The good news is you can always find someone or something to justify your preconceived notions when you do your "research".  The bad news is there is also a bunch of junk that requires some sorting out.  The sorting process is one facet of what is called "critical thinking". It takes an effort to do it.   Saying what you think is not a crime; acting it out could be, Shouting fire in a crowded theater is the famous standard that limits free speech. So far, even giving false information about Covid is not a crime, but some privately owned media companies choose to ban it either out of fear of a civil lawsuit or bad public relations. Media vehicles can also pick and choose what they permit, but not the government who cannot pass now laws forbidding free speech. Planning and directing an insurrection or violent acts also limits free speech protections.. Violent acts on behalf of a cause are not protected from free speech.  In dictatorships, saying what you think can also be a crime, but so far in our USA we still have a democracy. If your goal is to just make your case, to convince someone else, that is one thing., but it assumes the target your posting likes the source from which you got your information. That also requires some critical thinking and anticipation of pushback and rebuttal.    If your goal is to form an opinion or to seek verification of others' opinions and facts, that requires a different kind of research and critical thinking., independence of thought, flexibility to consider and reject or modify conclusions of already held notions.   That one takes some self-discipline as well as critical thinking.              Back to buying that used car.

 The gut feeling could be one indication and the old adage applies:  Would you buy a used car from this guy?  The other is asking for a report from the Better Business Bureau if the seller is a business o use whatever tools are out there...Blue books,  some advertised platforms to see this car had been in a wreck, and take it to a certified independent mechanic.  You may be dazzled by its shiny new red paint and squeaky clean interior, but what is under the hood and the drive train counts much.    Data and opinions are important, but the source that data, or facts, need to be objective. In buying this shiny used car, you may take it to a certified mechanic for analysis, one who has no stake in whether you buy it or not,  give it spin and a trial, and insist on a cooling-off period before you sign the papers. Try some of those websites that may tell you if the car had been in a wreck before or consumer reports that independently have many reviews. of that make and model.  You at least may still like the car for its looks, but you will also know what trouble or lack of it you are buying. That is being a good consumer.

 

                       

Thank the Pilgrims who began America’s quest for religious freedom updated November 27, 2020

A version of this was publlished in the Sky Hi News, 11/20-21/2018

https://www.skyhinews.com/news/opinion/opinion-muftic-thank-the-pilgrims-who-began-americas-quest-for-religious-freedom/

Summary:

The Pilgrims got the ball rolling but it was only the beginning. They saw freedom of religion freedom from a government run religion that persecuted them. It was not freedom for others...but after the colonies provided a rocky start of hanging heretics and hunting witches, the Constitution gave all of us freedom of religion. Application of that First Amendment is still a work in progress.

________________________________________________________________________________
This Thanksgiving we should give our thanks to the Pilgrims who have become an icon of what made the New World so unique in the civilizations that preceded them.. They left England and the old world to seek freedom to practice their own religion, free from a government backed state religion that oppressed them.  It was a beginning.  There was a rocky road ahead to laws guaranteeing religious freedom for everyone, not just one group.

 Some colonies adopted laws with limited forms of freedom of religion while others established state sponsored religions, hung heretics, and launched witch hunts.  Pennsylvania and Virginia   had enacted their own laws effectively protecting freedom of religion. The Constitution authors adopted those concepts in the First Amendment, ““Congress shalll make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Congress  later passed  civil rights and hate crimes legislation that protected religious practitioners and punished those who interfered with their practice.

So, disconcerting in 2018 is that many seem to have forgotten the lessons leaned from experience, traditions, and history. So heartening in the 2018 midterms is that many more Americans rejected an Oval Office leadership condoning and even promoting hate and fear of “others”, including Donald Trump's attempted immigration ban of anyone who was a Muslim, .

In 2016 this country had given the reins of power to Donald Trump whose soaring oratory appealed to the worst of human nature. He set the example. It was alright to be uncivil, no longer to be politically correct, to denigrate and disrespect’ others”, especially people of color and women, and to express such feelings publicly. His inflammatory words have continued in rallies and tweets to this day.

 While protected by the Constitution, words of hate have deadly consequences. That was brought home shortly before the 2018 midterms by the Pittsburgh Synagogue massacre. While Donald Trump did not target his hateful words toward the Jewish community, he tolerated and promoted intolerance. Our President opined about the neo-Nazi demonstrators in Charlottesville in 2017 that there some were “fine people” among them. The tiki torch bearing marchers shouted anti-Semitic slogans in German while raising arms in the Nazi salute.  

 An atmosphere of permissive hatred does not confine itself to specific targets.  It is infectious and even if originally unintended, it can spread to harm other targets, including religious ones. In 2017, the year after the election of Trump, the FBI reported a 37% spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes over 2016, and the Anti-Defamation League found the number of anti-Semitic incidents, mostly vandalism, was nearly 60 percent higher in 2017 than 2016, the largest single-year increase on record.

 Alt- right conspiracy theorists and Trump friendly media inspired the Pittsburgh synagogue killer. The shooter posted on his social media that a Jewish immigration group was bringing in immigrants to kill “his people”. Reviving references to the international Jewish conspiracy theories, other alt right proponents claimed a wealthy liberal Jewish-American-immigrant philanthropist, George Soros, was funding the “caravans” of central Americans storming our southern border. Numerous fact checkers found that false. Others before had claimed Soros paid “mobs” of women protesting the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Fact checkers: Soros paid none of the demonstrators. Last week In Baltimore, attendees of the performance of Fiddler on the Roof, the musical about Russian persecution of Jews, were still on edge from the mass killing in Pittsburgh. They panicked when a man in the audience shouted, “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump”, fearing it signaled another anti-Semitic mass murder attack. Fortunately, no one was hurt running to the exits. The man apologized later, said he was trying to compare Trump to Hitler but said it the wrong way, and he had been drinking before the performance and claimed protection of free speech. Note: The Supreme Court ruled many years ago shouting fire in a crowded theater is not protected speech. (Schenck v United States: Oliver Wendell Holmes crowded theater reference)
________________________________________________________________________________2018 rulings by the Supreme Court  concerning  freedom or religion set no precedents that altered the underlining intent of the First Amendment or related laws.

The “muslim ban”, halting practitioners of one of the world’s greatest religions from entering the US simply because of their religious affiliation, was rejected by the courts, requiring a total rewrite of rules to comply by those facing extreme vetting to enter the US, now based on selected countries that harbor terrorists and not all had a Muslim majority . It was even retitled as a "travel ban"
 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/26/supreme-court-rules-in-trump-muslim-travel-ban-case.html

If the tilting of the Supreme Court to the far right indicates that henceforth "religious freedom" means those who open the doors to the public can now discriminate against doing business with those of whom their religion disapproves, the answer should be nationwide and local boycotts of merchants who "exercise their religious freedom" to violate the rights of others. Nothing like causing them to lose the almighty buck to make a point. For those who oppose discrimination against any group, and especially the LGBTQ community and their supporters, it is in their right to use their freedoms to inform the community and to support those who are friendly to all and welcome their business. There are many more who do not discriminate than the narrow-minded holier than thou intolerant who do.

POLITICO.COM

Major shift at Supreme Court on Covid-19 orders

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to bar New York state from reimposing

The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of a cakemaker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple because it violated his religious beliefs...however, the ruling set no precedent because it based it on the specific  hostility of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/04/politics/masterpiece-colorado-gay-marriage-cake-supreme-court/index.html
Kim Clark, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple because of her religious beliefs, spent jail time over it in 2015 and was defeated in her attempt to be re-elected in 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/26/supreme-court-rules-in-trump-muslim-travel-ban-case.html

A number of Evangelical Christian ministers have recently proclaimed that the US is a "Christian nation".  It is not a state one per the Constitution, nor is the Evangelical brand of Christianity (full disclosure..I am a Mainstream  Protestant Christian) even the majority of the population.  Per a recent Pew Research study, Evangelicals are 25% of the population.  http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/

Evangelicals have had an impact, though, in exemptions of  employers providing ACA coverage of reproductive rights based on religious beliefs, first in the Obama administration and more so   under the Trump administration. The battle yet to be fought is over further proposed  restrictions on  birth control  insurance accessibility coverage. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fact-sheet-religious-exemptions-and-accommodations-for-coverage.pdf     https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/17/us/politics/trump-birth-control.html
Roe v Wade will also face challenges in the very conservative tilt in the Supreme Court    As a public policy regardless of religious affiliation, 71% of Americans polled oppose overturning Roe v Wade, https://www.wsj.com/articles/record-71-of-voters-oppose-overturning-roe-v-wade-1532379600
and 72% support birth control as basic health issue    https://powertodecide.org/about-us/newsroom/new-polling-shows-strong-support-for-birth-control-basic-part-womens-health-care
The backlash to religious restrictions on reproductive rights was palapable in 2018. The womens' marches and demonstrations against  confirmation of pro life anti birth control Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the doubling of the women gender gap to 19% of the voters were certainly contributors to the Democrats turning the House blue.

Right wing attempts to get around the separation of church and state issue in the funding of education have not gotten far. Once again Colorado was the focus when the Douglas County School Board thought issuing vouchers to students to attend any school of their choice, including a faith based school, was rebuffed by the Colorado Supreme Court. https://www.denverpost.com/2015/06/29/colorado-supreme-court-rejects-douglas-county-voucher-program/   Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's secretary of education has long been a supporter of tax payer money funding faith based schools through vouchers , and has set about issuing executive orders to chip away at the regulations forbidding public funds for religious schools. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/us/politics/betsy-devos-religious-christian-education-federal-aid.html

 Following US right wing efforts to alter the protection of freedom of religion,   in Europe and South America forces desiring to persecute and discriminate against  religious  minorities are raising their ugly heads. In Brazil, a fascist government was just elected, vowing to turn that country comprised of centuries of immigrants and native population, into a Christian nation.  In Europe a long list of countries electing very right wing, anti- Muslim immigrant governments are being elected to political leadership. http://www.pewresearch.org/topics/restrictions-on-religion/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion#United_States

https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/anti-semitic-incidents-surged-nearly-60-in-2017-according-to-new-adl-report

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-ci-hippodrome-follow-20181116-story.html

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/opinions/fbi-hate-crimes-data-whats-missing-berry-wiggins/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/22/fact-check-trumps-claims-migrant-caravan

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/robert-bowers-suspected-synagogue-shooter-believes-migrant-caravan-is-jewish-conspiracy.html

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/newsy/factchecking-the-suggestion-george-soros-paid-kavanaugh-protesters

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/us/gab-robert-bowers-pittsburgh-synagogue-shootings.html
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/documenting-hate-new-american-nazis/

If the tilting of the Supreme Court to the far right indicates that henceforth "religious freedom" means those who open the doors to the public can now discriminate against doing business with those of whom their religion disapproves, the answer should be nationwide and local boycotts of merchants who "exercise their religious freedom" to violate the rights of others. Nothing like causing them to lose the almighty buck to make a point. For those who oppose discrimination against any group, and especially the LGBTQ community and their supporters, it is in their right to use their freedoms to inform the community and to support those who are friendly to all and welcome their business. There are many more who do not discriminate than the narrow-minded holier than thou intolerant who do. .

POLITICO.COM

Major shift at Supreme Court on Covid-19 orders

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to bar New York state from reimposing

Talking turkey about religious freedom

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi News Nov. 22, 2017 https://www.skyhinews.com/news/muftic-talking-turkey-about-religious-freedom/


Update: Dec. 5, 6, 16 2017: Supreme Court to hear the Masterpiece Cakeshop case:
http://www.newsweek.com/masterpiece-cakeshop-v-colorado-civil-rights-commission-three-things-know-730892

https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-weighs-bakers-refusal-cake-gay-couple-060222755.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-temporarily-blocks-trump-rules-birth-control-204222704.html


Hopefully not forgotten  when we feast Thanksgiving   is the reason the Pilgrims risked  the dangerous passage  across the ocean . It was to find a place to practice their religion free of persecution by the English crown.  It took another 160 years before the concept of religious freedom changed from  just for protecting  the practice of the majority group’s  religion to  Constitutionally enshrined   tolerance  of all to practice their religion free  from  government  restrictions and persecution, prohibiting  the establishment of a state religion that meant the separation of church and state.  Those. provisions were incorporated in the First Amendment :“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religions, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

To reach an agreement  from the desire of colonialists to protect only their  own colony’s majorities’ religious practices to protecting everyone else’s took time and  bitter experiences. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony hung Quakers for not going along with their concept of purification.  Roger Williams left the Colony to found Rhode Island  as a result. Nearly every colony had established their state approved religion before 1776 and some, like Maryland, found themselves entangled in anti-Catholic  turmoil.

Interpretation of  the meaning of the First Amendment is constantly under pressure for revision  by conservative  religious  groups who want to expand its meaning to suit their own brand of theology, sometimes  to the detriment of others who hold  different beliefs and values. A changing  ideological makeup of the Courts will help  the religious right find success  for years to come

 In our divisive partisan times  there is a concerted  fast track effort  by  the  GOP majority Senate  to approve  young appointees  to lifetime  federal bench  positions who demonstrate  allegiance to a   very conservative  religious based  ideology with less regard of  their professional credentials  and  judicial temperament. In the last Obama administration years, the GOP Senate dragged its heels in approving Obama's nominations, leaving 159 seats (1/8 of the total) vacant for a GOP Senate to fill in 2017-2018. Last week  a GOP dominated  Senate committee gave approval  for a federal judgeship to  blogger Brett Talley,  a  highly partisan Trump administration family member  with no court trial experience and who was  declared unfit to serve  by the  American Bar Association.  With the appointment of  Judge Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court  this year  even past decisions could be in jeopardy  of revision given the tilt of the Court to the right, including the reversal of Roe v Wade and the right to same sex marriage. It is likely to happen..

Could tax payer funded vouchers be issued for students to attend religious based schools?  In Douglas County, Colorado,  an election of a school board that  advocated such  vouchers triggered  suits claiming violation of the separation of church and state,  resulting in stalled  court decisions, and a  successful counter revolution against  the voucher advocates in recent school board elections  this  November 7. Outside groups supporting vouchers  plan to continue the  legal fight.  Courts have ruled against state legislation banning Sharia law on Constitutional grounds .Federal courts overturned President Trump’s “Muslim ban” twice  as  religious discrimination.  However, with a  third revision, the ban was given  partial life by the Supreme Court  on procedural matters, but other challenges on substance remain. A Trump executive order in October permitted employers to stop insurance coverage of birth control on religious grounds. A court case to permit businesses  to refuse service  to gays  because of religious beliefs, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission ,will be heard and decided by the US Supreme Court in 2018.  

Even the  the candidacy of Judge Roy Moore in Alabama reminds us of his advocacy of the public  government display of the Ten Commandments to discrimination against gays were also struck down by courts on First Amendment grounds.

While Pilgrims and Puritans came to America to practice their own brand of Christianity free of the King of England’s persecution, tolerance of others was not their purpose. It was the son of the Age of Reason, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1779 and his concepts were incorporated in the First Amendment by those who argued for separation of church and state. disestablishment of state churches and protection of religious freedom.

For those who argue our country was founded on Christianity, that this is a Christian nation,  it  may have been  so at the beginning, but it was not  ultimately reflected in our Constitution.  It was the Age of Reason that was the non-religious, non sectarian view which prevailed in the First Amendment.  The new nation  reflected  Judeo-Christian values, if not a specific theology,  of the dominant  western European culture of the time.   Our founders did acknowledge that we had rights endowed to us, the people, by the Creator. Still fought by atheists is whether we are indeed “one nation under God” and much has been made that Masonic symbolism permeates our national symbols and architecture.  The model used as a form of government  by our founders mostly  was Roman. The philosophers drawn upon  in the enlightenment and age of reason  by Jefferson were Greek and their 18th century interpreters. A motivating pragmatic reason may have been the history of bloody wars and divisiveness of the Catholic-Protestant conflict that swept  England and Europe for centuries  after the Reformation, as well as the unfairness of Kings who claimed they had the divine right to govern absolutely.  By banning a state religion and providing for the separation of church and state, those bloody religious based civil wars were made less likely.

Dec. 4 2017 update.
In the recent version of the tax bill that passed out of the Senate and is on the way to conference committee, Orin Hatch sneaked in an amendment that permits tax deductions for the cost of going to a private school...any...including religious. However, for expenses parents may have to attend public school, there is no tax break. Expect this to be challenged in court.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-gops-plan-to-rule-the-courts-until-2050

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=0

https://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501476919/gop-strategy-paved-way-for-trump-to-nominate-supreme-court-justice

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/07/dougco-school-board-race-election-results/

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/09/douglas-county-school-district-voucher-program-in-danger-after-election-2017/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-06/trump-rule-limits-obamacare-s-birth-control-coverage-requirement

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/10/victory-trump-supreme-court-dismisses-travel-ban-case/752401001/

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/09/12/bakers-supreme-court-case-set-tone-religious-liberty-us/

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/05/roy_moore_timeline_ten_command.html

Also, see the 9/19/17  blog posting on this site: Islamphobia Comes to Grand County.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-pilgrims/2013/11/22/9f93e822-52c1-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html

http://www.shmoop.com/church-and-state/supreme-court-school-vouchers.html

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa031700a.htm

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/21/judge-removes-block-funds-gender-reassignment/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_campaign=pushnotify&utm_medium=push

The meaning of freedom for which so many died defending it

Heavily edited, reduced version appeared in the editions of the Sky Hi News, May 31, 2017.

So how are you celebrating Memorial Day? Will it be a long weekend  with friends and families and backyard barbecues? Or did you put up your flag  with a sense that you did your patriotic duty? Or have you reflected a bit  on the meaning of Memorial Day,  to commemorate those who died in defense of our country? I plan all.  Running through my head  is Lee Greenwood’s great lyric which  captures the meaning of Memorial Day the best:

“And I'm proud to be an American

Where at least I know I'm free

And I won't forget the ones who died who gave that right to me

And I'll gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today

Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land, God Bless the USA.”

Those words are ones that both sides of the ideological spectrum can agree upon.  However, in our polarized America, we have differing views of what freedom, the  core value saluted in those lyrics, means.

My grandson, raised in a Colorado household of both  immigrants  and  those who could trace New World ancestors back to the late 1600’s, just returned from a visit with relatives of his nearest and dearest in a southern state.  His comment was, “they live in a different world and now I understand why Donald Trump is popular there”.  To him  profound  political divisions became real.

I  was not surprised. I grew up in Oklahoma, the reddest of any state, but I spent the remainder  of my life in large urban areas both in Europe and in the US and  married  a refugee from eastern Europe.  I have experienced  authoritarianism and  non-free societies  practiced first hand. Not everyone has that perspective, but it has influenced my political thought about what freedom means and what I find disturbing today in this very politically polarized America.

While I respect others’ rights to hold values that differ even from what  I was taught in my  Oklahoma youth,   I see personal freedom as protected  in our Constitution’s  First Amendment : right to free speech, press freedom, religious freedom, and the freedom to peacefully assemble. I see those freedoms under attack  today by some. For them,  free speech is reserved for those who  agree with personal views, but otherwise those opinions are to be minimized, shouted down and physically intimidated. Religious freedom is not only free from government interference to practice it  or to be free of a  religion established, preferred, or enforced by a government,   but now  it  means to some freedom to refuse to serve or give the same rights to those  with different religious beliefs and values.   Freedom of the press means loyalty to one media outlet and to consider all others prejudicial  and “the enemy of the people”  regardless of the merits of the arguments or the sources of  facts. Facts become those presented by the favored news outlet; otherwise there are no such things as facts.  The freedom to assemble in peaceful protest is viewed as motivated and organized  by some sinister force to be disrespected as certainly not arising  from real self interest or values of morality and a sense of fairness.  Our military  defends our freedoms from foreign threats, but the real threat  to our traditional views of freedom lies  within our own country’s hearts and minds.

Violating constitutional principles is like riding the tiger

VIOLATING CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES IS LIKE RIDING THE TIGER

Our founding fathers were wise men.  They established the Constitution that is as relevant today as it was in the late 18^th century. It is being attacked by those who advocate ignoring the basic principles of that document because they are fearful.  Fear and hate are also powerful tools for those seeking power. We need to support the principles of the Constitution. To do otherwise is like riding the back of a tiger. It will eventually devour us as it has others.

It was not that our nation’s founders foresaw a nation or a world that would have the internet, a widespread bully pulpit of cable TV, weapons of mass destruction or firearms that would require little skill to be used as killing machines, but they drew on experiences of governance failures and the tendencies of human nature.

 Those writers of the Constitution carefully constructed a representative democracy, not a direct one that immediately reflected an ever fickle, easily spooked, public opinion.  They believed that extreme views and their proponents needed to be tempered. They had seen it all: religious wars in England and Europe. They had experienced public opinion influenced by pamphlets and rabble rousers and saw some hanging fellow colonialists who did not subscribe to the official religion of that particular colony.

 They had also witnessed the repression by kings governing by divine right, exercising power over their subjects’ lives.  So they wrote a document that made it less likely that there would ever be a king, yet left a government with enough powers to be effective.  They divided the power of federal government among three branches.  Even within the legislative branch, a more contemplative Senate put the brakes on a House more sensitive to the tides of public sentiment. They also retained some rights for the states.  When branches conflicted, they let the courts decide which act the closest to the intent of the Constitution, as they are doing now.  They amended the Constitution to protect individual citizens from being trampled by an overbearing, unfair government.

There are destructive forces today that undermine the principles upon which the Constitution was founded. For example, Donald Trump proposes registering all Muslims, forcing them to wear monitoring devices (violating more than one of the rights protected by the first Ten Amendments), and the use of torture. Others, such as John Kasich, want to set up a government agency to promote Judeo Christian values and thus de facto establishing a state religion in a nation that is multi-  and non- religious. The glue that holds such a diverse nation together is the Constitution, not allegiance to a religion’s particular interpretation of values.

Our forefathers formulated the Constitution to temper human nature’s instincts to embrace safety within the fold of like- minded groups.   It is that very human tendency to seek the leadership that is willing to throw under the bus the basic rights of individuals and the constraints of government power in the name of national security. It is only human to seek a strong man for protection, regardless of where he/she leads us. We saw it in Germany and Spain in the 1930’s and in Argentina under populist Peron in the 1950’s

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi Daily News  12/4/2015
www.skyhidailynews.com

The rule of secular law is the law of the land

The rule of secular law

As  a former county clerk myself, the county clerk  who refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples because it violated her religious beliefs, got me thinking about the differences between a country ruled by laws that were secular, not connected with religious or spiritual matters, and a country ruled by an official state religion. The U.S. is governed by secular laws.

 

 That issue, secular vs religious rule,  dominated debates in  American history  among and within the colonies, but it became one of the compromises expressed in the First Amendment when the Constitution was formulated and ratified. It  forbad Congress from establishing a state religion and protected freedom to practice one’s own religion.

 

 Our founding fathers were influenced by  their bitter experience with persecution under the English kings who also served as the religious rulers by divine right and  the divisive practices of some colonies , such as the Puritans of Massachusetts who substituted persecution justified by one religious belief with another just as cruel.

In modern times the issue of separation of church and state has been the subject of many a US Supreme Court rulings.  Sometimes other Constitutional provisions such as the 14^th Amendment that established the right of equal protection under the law seem to conflict with the First Amendment.  The Supreme Court is the arbiter that resolves those conflicts and they ruled in 2014 that equal protections trumped  laws in  those states that had passed laws motivated by religious beliefs of their majority forbidding same sex marriage.

 A key to a stable, successful democracy is a  rule of secular  law that protects minority interests.  Failure to do so has hobbled many wannabe democracies .The tension within secular states vs Islamist advocates of Sharia law , the religious laws derived from interpretations of the Koran, have played out in the Arab Spring .  In Egypt ,deposed President Mubarek’s secular law was replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Sharia type laws that resulted in persecution of Christians and others, followed by  a military coup that re-established secular law.  In Turkey, a government tried to replace  the secular laws of Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey) with more Islamist ones.  The result has been many demonstrations, bombings and unrest, attempted power grabs,  and changes in leadership.  The Nobel peace prize was just awarded to a group in Tunisia who hammered out a compromise between Islamists and secularists, though the country is  still a home to many Islamic extremists.

 Most American elected and appointed officials swear on a Bible to uphold the laws of the land which are secular.      Kentucky  clerk, Kim Davis,  refused  to  issue marriage licenses to same sex couples because  she was acting because of her religious beliefs that  forbad her to do so.  Her action  resulted in jail time for contempt of court. 

Another Kentucky clerk opined : " Why take away the majority's right [just] to give the minority their rights?” Send her back to school for civics lessons.  The First and 14^th amendment protects minority rights from being trampled by the majority ,  but they are not enforced under the authority of state sponsored religion but under the authority of the secular  Constitution.

Felicia Muftic served as Denver County Clerk from 1983-1991.
A version of this appeared in the www.skyhidailynews.com  October 23, 2015

 For sources tapped for the column visit www.mufticforumblog.blogspot.com and  also visit the posting: Freedom of religion, a right so often misunderstood

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/secular

 Bowman, Brad (September 2, 2015). "Defiant county clerks standing ground on gay marriage issue". The State Journal (Frankfort, KY).

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/supreme-court-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage/1605/

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/07/21/marriage-license-suit-vs-clerk-back-court/30319757/