Speaking as a registered voter and tax-paying citizen, it is a question I want answered. Isn’t it a question you want answered, as well? In case you managed to miss the news, 47 Republicans sent an open letter to Iran.
Before we head into what will probably receive venomous responses, let me provide a frame of reference about myself. I was born a Republican. I will give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. I’m not very religious. Indeed, I’m one of the millions who left the church, not to go anywhere else really, just to leave. Truth be told, I’m one of the millions the current leadership of the Republican Party has left behind.
It has become obvious that the current leadership of the Republican Party is made up of religious extremists—or at least, obvious to people who think. Even the people at Slate have pointed this out with the following statement:
Indeed, your Republican Congress is much like our revolutionary Islamic councils. We are brothers.
Even if one could somehow find a way to overlook their other religious extremist antics, a stunt—which, when it grows up, can aspire to be childlike, such as wedging anti-abortion language into an education bill hoping it will slip through—paints them with a very broad brush. Seriously? This is what passes for governing?
When one uses DuckDuckGo and searches for ‘religious extremist,’ one of the links that pops up routes to a definition of fundamentalism, which is as follows:
A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.
To me, this translates to “attempting to force your religion onto others.” It also appears to be a heinous violation of the Constitution’s wording regarding a separation of church and state.
The People vs. Larry Flynt had to establish what boundaries and protections there are when it comes to freedom of speech. We now need something along the lines of The People vs. 47 Republican Senators to establish just how far afield senators, acting in official capacity, can go before it becomes treason. I believe it is time for a Ken Starr– type person to delve into this. We aren’t talking about 47 Republican senators sending a nasty-gram to POTUS. This wasn’t a “leak” or “mistake.” To me, and most likely anyone viewing this action from outside the country, this was one group of religious extremists attempting to derail a treaty/deal, which would keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of another group of religious extremists. To me, a regular tax-paying voter, that sounds like treason. We need someone with subpoena power to look into it and either prosecute or explain to the American people why it wasn’t treason using language they, the American people, can understand.
No, I’m not a shill for another party. I’m a citizen who believes this went beyond all boundaries of acceptable behavior at best and our judicial system needs to weigh in on it.
