Fourteen Democratic Senators voted for the Covert Alternative to Public Stoning Bill. That's a fucking one-third of the total number of so-called Democrats in the Senate.
I know there are several diaries discussing this abomination. I am just as outraged as the authors and discussants of those diaries, but I'd like to see two substantive points discussed: the unconstitutionality of all such laws, and the pitiful state of the Democratic Party.
First, can we agree on a dispassionate, rational argument about the unconstitutionality of all "parental notification" laws, whether state or federal? I contentd that
all those laws violate the First Amendment because they have no rational secular purpose. The underlying premise is that providing a vent for sadistic tendencies does not qualify as a "rational secular purpose". I would welcome some devil's advocate attacks on this position, because it needs to be strengthened and popularized through debate.
Second, if one-third of the elected Democrats vote for a fascist piece of crap, what hope is left for a progressive? I am close to giving up on the Democratic Party altogether. I am beginning to think that we may be better off just letting the Republicans self-destruct by pursuing ever-more-idiotic policies than have this bunch of invertebrates try to stop them - or maybe just appease them. What would be the use of a narrow Democratic majority if it wouldn't stop the two worst things happening to America - the occupation of Iraq and the undermining of the secular state by the religious right?