There are certain news stories that simply concern you. This, is one of them.
To summarize:
Yesterday Congress passed, by a vote of 247 – 173 a measure declaring the Pledge of Allegiance off-limits to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Although I support the use of the words “under God” in the pledge (since in my view, it is a reflection of US history and tradition), I worry that machinations like this are the first step on a very slippery slope. As was pointed out in the article, its obvious that these moves are a ploy by the Republicans to create a wedge issue during the election. Wedge issues are I guess, political gold, since they can energize entire demographics (in this case the Christian evangelical and fundamentalist right) and drive them to vote. Although a Christian myself, I’ve often wondered at the enormous influence this sector of the party base appears to have over policy.
How did that come about?
At any rate, if votes like this succeed in navigating the US legal system I can only wonder at whether the floodgates will be opened. Will we soon start to see votes preventing the Supreme Court from ruling on [insert current party’s favorite policy here]? Or, am I simply being too melodramatic?