Yesterday, the U.S. Senate defeated, by one vote short of a two-thirds majority, an effort to amend our Constitution to prohibit desecration of the American flag.
As a patriot who loves America, I find burning or disparaging the flag abhorrent, reprehensible, and disgusting. To see the flag that stands for Liberty, for Freedom of Speech and Assembly, for the right to Worship or not as one's own conscience dictates -- to see that flag disgraced is terribly painful.
But as important a symbol as the flag is, what it stands for -- a Constitution that upholds the right of every person to declare his or her beliefs, no matter how repellent we find those beliefs to be -- is more important, more fundamental to the continuation of our American Liberties than any banner of cloth.
Yesterday, three Americans distinguished themselves as Patriots and Heroes. They aren't the sort of men we usually laud at DKos, but we'd be fools deserting our principles if we didn't take time to praise these Three Republican Heroes.
Fourteen Democratic Senators placed pandering ahead of protecting the Constitution:
Max Baucus,
Evan Bayh,
Mark Dayton,
Dianne Feinstein,
Tim Johnson,
Mary Landrieu,
Blanche Lincoln,
Robert Menéndez,
Bill Nelson,
Ben Nelson,
Harry Reid,
Jay Rockefeller,
Kenneth Salazar,
Debbie Stabenow
(Minority Leader and possible Presidential candidates highlighted.)
Three courageous Republican Senators preserved and protected the liberties our Founding Fathers pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" to secure:
Robert Bennett,
Lincoln Chafee,
Mitch McConnell
And the Independent Senator whose "No" vote saved the sanctity of our Constitution:
Jim Jeffords of Vermont.
In this time of fierce partisanship, watching the Bush Administration erode and disparage our traditional American liberties, it's perhaps difficult to praise Republicans. Burt we'd be hurting America if we fail today to salute Robert Bennett (who voted against this amendment sponsored by his fellow Utah Republican Senator, Orrin Hatch), Lincoln Chafee, and Mitch McConnell.
Whatever disagreements we may have with these three Republicans, today they performed a great service to America by safeguarding the liberties Americans have lived and died to perpetuate -- most importantly the freedom of conscience and the right to dissent, even in ugly and hateful ways. These men must always be remembered as Patriots, and Defenders of Liberty of the first order.
Far easier for them would have been to seek the safety of the pandering herd, to do the wrong thing while claiming the best of intentions. Instead, they stood for the principles that have made our nation great.
And however much we may like the fourteen Democratic panderers who voted for this foolish amendment, we must regretfully admit that they have painfully demonstrated that they cannot be entrusted with our sacred liberties.