The Systematic Destruction of Equality Is The Top Republican Priority

Equality is the state of being equal in status, rights, and opportunities, and social equality requires the absence of legally enforced social boundaries as well as the absence of discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of a person’s identity. For example, gender, race, disability, or sexual orientation must not result in unequal treatment under the law and should not reduce opportunities. The 14^th Amendment of United States Constitution and Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantee that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.” This foundation of equality is generally subscribed to by all decent human beings, but despite it being a hallmark of the nation’s founding document and an “immortal declaration,” there are un-American citizens who are not only opposed to the idea of equality, they are actively seeking means to destroy the concept and claim the U.S. Constitution gives them legal cover to abridge equal rights of other Americans.

Most Americans celebrated the recent court rulings striking down biblical anti-gay laws that adversely affect their family members and friends, but for every person rejoicing that their loved ones will finally enjoy the Constitution’s guarantee of equality, there are just as many decrying the rulings as a violation of their presumed dog-given religious right to discriminate. In fact, the recent ruling declaring Texas’ ban on marriage equality unconstitutional elicited intense outrage from evangelical extremists who threatened an “epic battle” and condemned the nation’s judiciary as “domestic enemies.” The judges who have ruled according to the Constitution’s guarantee of equal rights were also condemned to burn in proverbial Hell for “replacing Democracy with dictatorship, abrogating the U.S. Constitution, flaunting the laws of God and nature, and assuming jurisdiction they don’t have.” Interestingly, it is the U.S. Constitution that gives the judiciary jurisdiction to strike down laws mandating discrimination against Americans.

Obviously, the pronouncements were delivered by religious right extremists who claim that since “there is NO mention of sexual orientation in the Constitution, and any judge who imagines one is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, and should be impeached and removed from office. We must demand Congress hold the line, and protect the traditional definition of marriage FEDERALLY.” There is also no mention of Constitutional protections to discriminate against any group in America, but the religious right translates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom to worship into their license to discriminate and fortunately the judicial system does not acknowledge or adhere to that interpretation.

The regular demented cast of characters opposed to equality weighed in on the Texas ruling and accused the Obama Administration of “tear[ing] away at the foundation of the rule of law” and warned it will lead to “anarchy” and a “breakdown of society altogether.” Another character who does not merit name mention said the ruling was “the most egregious form of judicial activism of our generation” and since “the federal judiciary is out of control,” pledged there would be an “epic battle” to defeat equality in Texas. The Christian extremists have a staunch ally in teabagger hero and evangelical fanatic Ted Cruz who recently displayed his rank ignorance of the Constitution’s guarantee of equality and introduced legislation, the “State Marriage Defense Act” to overrule the Supreme Court’s decision striking down parts of the federal government’s ban on marriage equality.

Cruz accused equal right advocacy groups of using “brute power” to assault and “subvert our democratic system” by forcing states to take down the unconstitutional “marriage laws that have been in place for centuries, and that’s inconsistent with the Constitution.” It is prescient that southern religious right advocates argued that their biblical right to keep human beings as slaves had been in place for centuries, and it led to the deaths of over a three-quarters-of-a-million Americans when their “threat of an epic battle” came to fruition in the Civil War. Cruz went on to warn there is “an awakening” of “millions” of Americans who were lining up behind his campaign against marriage equality that lends credence to religious right’s threats an “epic battle” to preserve inequality while claiming it is protected by the Constitution.

Cruz joined other fanatical evangelicals and laid the blame for supporting the Constitution’s guarantee of equality on the religious rights’ favorite target President Obama. He said that “under President Obama, the federal government has tried to undermine the constitutional authority of each state” to define unconstitutional religious laws discriminating against gays “consistent with the values of its citizens. The Obama Administration should not be trying to force gay marriage on all 50 states. This bill will safeguard the ability of states to preserve traditional marriage for its residents.” Cruz and his evangelical cohort fully understand President Obama is not forcing gay marriage on any state, but it is the kind of rhetoric that incites the faithful and sounds better than saying the President supports the Constitution’s guarantee of equality for all Americans.

Maybe Cruz and his religious hate camp fail to hear themselves advocate for discrimination borne of the bible while claiming their gay hate and discrimination is protected under the Constitution. Over the past week, there was a call to House Republicans to impeach Attorney General Eric Holder for “advancing the rights of homosexuals, the practice of homosexuality, sodomy, and consensual sodomy” that Pat Robertson said were “elevated above the rights of religious believers.” Another religious right extremist said that gays finally enjoying constitutionally guaranteed equal rights “are costing us our freedoms,” and like all evangelical extremists cannot enumerate even one freedom anti-equality advocates have lost but loudly asserted the “homosexual lobby” is “corroding our freedom.” Whether or not extremist Christians are willing to say, out loud, what freedom they lost, it is their so-called religious freedom to impose biblical inequality on other Americans they persistently claim is their Constitutional religious right and they are threatening an “epic battle” to preserve that right.

The language coming from the religious right, primarily in southern Republican-controlled states, is beginning to sound like Confederate rhetoric that led to the Civil War; particularly their choice of President Obama as the target of their ire. There has always been an element in America that claims some group warrants unequal treatment, and if it wasn’t African Americans it has been women with major support coming from the religious right; now the focus is on gays. The troubling aspect is the evangelical extremists have accumulated a phalanx of Republican leaders who are either true believers or pandering to extremists for electoral support; whatever their motivation, they are guilty of inciting a dangerous demographic to action. History has shown time and time again that there is no greater threat than religiously motivated people claiming their campaign is righteous, and subsequently there will be violence when they perceive their god is behind them. If any American does not believe it they should consult their history books under Inquisition, the American Civil War, Armenian genocide, Nazi Holocaust, and the terror attacks on 9/11 because although they occurred in different eras and geographical locations, the perpetrators claimed god was with them.

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Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.

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