From: pjm@anegada.sps.mot.com (Patrick J. McGuinness)
Subject: Re: GOP violates Constitution
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin TX
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 18:11:21 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.161531.22940@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
>In article <BtwMzK.JBJ@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> dev@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Larry Weeks) writes:
>>bks@alfa.berkeley.edu (Bradley K. Sherman) once wrote: 
>
>@ Article VI of the Constitution of the United States of America states:
>@  ...
>@    The senators and representatives beforementioned, and the members
>@  of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial
>@  officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall
>@  be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution; but
>@  no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any
>@  office or public trust under the United States
>
>@ The Republican Convention was treasonous.

You statement is false.

Sorry, you should have accused the GOP of inciting rebellion! To wit:

" But ladies and gentlemen, a more benign but equally insidious
plague has fastened itself upon the families of America.
    It is the belief that bureaucrats know more about managing
people's affairs than the people themselves.
    It is the belief that sweat and hard work and free enterprise are
somehow suspect.
    A belief in higher taxes, crushing regulation, and centralized
government.
    Ladies and gentlemen, the carrier of this plague is the Democrat
Party."
	- Rev. Pat Robertson.
>
>>Oh bull! What the Republicans are doing may be not very wise, but it
>>certainly isn't treasonous. The federal government is prohibited from
>>using a religious test, but the political parties are in no such way
>>restricted. People should start recognizing that the Constitution
>>governs the actions of the federal government, not private individuals
>>or organizations.
>
>	Strictly speaking, that _is_ correct. But what we are seeing
>here is a _de facto_ religious test,

Oh, Bull! There is no such religious test, de facto or otherwise, and you know
it.  My GOP Congressional candidate happens to be a pro-choice Jewish
Professor (and ex-Ambassador), and the numerous candidates of many
faiths running for office and working as volunteers disproves your claim.

What we have here is an attempt to paint the GOP with the brush of
one or two extreme speakers at the GOP convention.  But even the extreme case,
Pat Robertson's speech about the need for "values" in our society,
was less offensive than the Rev. Jesse Jackson's rant that equated
belief in welfare reform with being a child-killing Herod.

>	I confess I have little respect for the RR; too many of its
>advocates are world-class liars and sleazebags.
[Pat Robertson-bashing deleted]

Obviously. I wonder, though, that if you were complaining about
leaders of black Americans, gays, or whomever, you would
be *seriously* taken to task for painting a broad brush over
a movement because of the foibles of some of its leaders or members.
I am not a Fundamentalist or even a "Christian", but they have
as much a right to their opinions as you have to yours.
There is at least one aspect of Christian tolerance here that we still
need to learn (on all sides, I guess :-( ).  
---
Pat

P.S. After having reread Pat Robertson's speech, I am more firmly convinced
that those complaining about the Religious Right did not really
hear, or care to hear, about what he really said, but rather are simply
using him as a lightning rod for criticism. It might be better to
examine and criticise what he *actually* said though, rather than
inferring things from unwarranted assumptions and old news.
So take his speech and flame away! Forthwith:

-----
Originally posted by James Barrett:

         Text of CBN President Pat Robertson's Speech

    Here is the prepared text of the address Wednesday by Pat
Robertson, president and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network
to the Republican Natl Convention:

    Ladies and gentlemen, 75 years ago a plague descended upon the
world and covered the nations of Eastern Europe like a dark cloud.

    Slowly but surely this dreaded menace grew and spread until it
threatened the freedom of the entire world.

    This menace was called Communism.

    The Communists built a wall to prevent their people from escaping
tyranny and an arsenal of nuclear weapons to terrorize free people
everywhere.

    Ladies and gentlemen, it was Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and
Republican policies which brought communism to its knees.

    It was a Republican president who stood before that blood-soaked
wall of slavery dividing East from West Berlin and shouted, "Mr
Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

    The wall did come down--and from Gdansk in the Baltic to Constanza
on the Black Sea the Iron Curtain fell.

    Freedom won.

    Democracy triumphed.

    Communism collapsed.

    Nuclear terror no longer threatens our families.

    Children can go to bed at night without suffering nightmares or
fearing attack from a foreign foe.

    The Cold War is over--and we won!

    And it all happened under the administration of the man who must
get 4 more years in the White House--George Bush!

    But ladies and gentlemen, a more benign but equally insidious
plague has fastened itself upon the families of America.

    It is the belief that bureaucrats know more about managing
people's affairs than the people themselves.

    It is the belief that sweat and hard work and free enterprise are
somehow suspect.

    A belief in higher taxes, crushing regulation, and centralized
government.

    Ladies and gentlemen, the carrier of this plague is the Democrat
Party.

    Lyndon Johnson called it the Great Society.  Bill Clinton calls it
the New Covenant.

    But, my friends, whatever name you give it, it is still the
liberal welfare state--and we want no part of it.

    We are here tonight to discuss the crisis facing the American
family.  Nothing burdens to family more today than the high taxes and
wasteful spending of the liberal welfare state.

    Consider the crushing burden of federal spending that the
Democrats have placed on each family in America.  In 1940, the federal
government presided over a nation of 130 million people with a budget
of only $13 billion.  Today, the population of America is 250 million,
an increase of 92 % since 1940, yet the federal budget has grown to
$1.5 trillion--an increase of 10,900 %.

    In 1950 the average family in America paid only 2 % of its income
to the federal government.  Today the same family pays 25 % of its
income in federal taxes.

    And what are the Democrats on Capitol Hill doing with the
hard-earned dollars of American families?

    --$450,000 to study whether students who do homework learn more.

    --$350,000 to determine if people eat more food at a smorgasbord
than from a menu.

    And who knows how much we have spent learning of the sexual
proclivities of the snail darter, the spotted owl, and the fruit fly.

    With spending programs like this, I'm beginning to wonder if the
Democrats are in their right minds.  At least one swears that he
doesn't inhale, but I think some of them are smoking funny cigarettes.

    The only spending Bill Clinton and the Democrats want to cut is
defense.  He wants to slash $60 Billion from defense below the
President's own reductions, leaving the nation weak and vulnerable.

    Come to think of it, when it comes to defense, Slick Willy talks
like John Wayne but acts like Beetle Bailey.

    Ladies and gentlemen, the Democrats have controlled the Congress
for 36 years.  The tax-and-spend, check-kiting Democrats in Congress
have undermined the family, taxed the economy into recession, and
passed budget-busting bills that have ballooned the national debt.

    President Bush has vetoed their anti-family, pork-barrel bills 31
times--and 31 times he has made his veto stick!  That's why the
liberals on Capitol Hill want Bill Clinton in the White House to
rubber-stamp their big spending ways.

    But we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can't trust Slick
Teddy from Massachusetts, or Slick Rosty from Chicago, or Slick Joey
from Delaware--and ladies and gentlemen, I tell you that the American
people can't trust Slick Willie from Arkansas.

    Under the tax-and-spend Democrats, two-thirds of the federal
budget is now spent on Great Society entitlement programs.  Our
families pay more in taxes to support wasteful government than the
serfs did in medieval Europe.

    The economy has slowed.  Many families are hurting.  It is time to
stop fleecing the families of America to fatten the potentates of pork
on Capitol Hill and perpetuate the failed policies of the Great
Society.  It is time to tighten the federal budget, not the family
budget.

    It is time for a change.

    The people of Eastern Europe got rid of their left wingers, it is
time we in America got rid of our left wingers!

    We don't need a New Covenant.  We need a new Congress!  The
average prison term for a convicted murderer in America is 6.5 years.
The average tenure for a member of Congress is 13 years.  We've got it
backwards--we need term limits for members of Congress, and we need
them now!

    Tonight we say to the American people, a Republican White House
gave you victory over Communism and liberated Kuwait.  Now give George
Bush a Republican Congress and he will win the war with the budget
deficit as skillfully as he won the war in the Persian Gulf.

    George Bush's vision for America, ladies and gentlemen, is one of
faith in God, strong families, freedom, individual initiative, and
free enterprise.  He believes that government should be the people's
servant and not their master.

    The vision of Bill Clinton is a liberal welfare state that
dominates every facet of our lives--burdens free
enterprise--redistributes wealth--raises taxes--and weakens the
family.

    Here's what Bill Clinton wants for America.

    1.  He told People magazine that he wouldn't let his 13-year-old
daughter get her ears pierced,...but he wants to give your 13-year-old
daughter the choice without your consent-to destroy the life of her
unborn baby.  And he is opposed to giving 30-year-old mothers real
choice in deciding where to send their children to school.

    2.  He has said that we wants a litmus test for all Supreme Court
judges.  They must agree to surrender their intellectual judgment and
vote in favor of abortion on demand or he will not appoint them.  And
he said that Mario Cuomo would--and I quote--"be an excellent choice"
for the Supreme Court.

    3.  He wants to repeal the ban on homosexuals in the military and
appoint homosexuals to his administration.

    4.  He is running on a platform that calls for saving the spotted
owl, but never once mentions the name of God.  When Bill Clinton talks
about family values, he is not talking about either families or
values.  He is talking about a radical plan to destroy the traditional
family and transfer its functions to the federal government.

    Ladies and gentlemen, we have a First Lady, Barbara Bush, who is a
gracious lady, a devoted wife, a dedicated mother, and a caring
grandmother.

    In 1985, I travelled with then Vice President George Bush and
Barbara Bush to a desert refugee camp in northern Sudan.  Emaciated
people near death were walking through the burning desert to flee
famine and Communist tyranny in Ethiopia.

    I will never forget the haunting eyes of 1 emaciated little
six-month old boy who only weighed 5 1/2 pounds.  And I will never
forget Barbara Bush in the midst of the dust, the flies, and the
disease, taking that little child in her arms and loving it as only a
mother could.

    Ladies and gentlemen, no one can convince me that the American
people are so blind that they would replace Barbara Bush.

    The campaign before us is not just a campaign for an office, but
for the destiny of America.  We will not rest until there is a new
birth of freedom in America

    --until our families are strong

    --until parents can have true choice in the education of their
children

    --until parents with children receive the tax relief they richly
deserve

    --until we honor the elderly and protect the unborn child in its
mother's womb

    --until the crushing burden of federal debt is lifted from every
family in America

    --until we restore the greatness of America through a return to
moral strength.

    Ladies and gentlemen, George Bush stands for these values.  He
will continue to stand for these values.  And that is why, in
November, we must work hard to see that George Bush is reelected
President of the US.

    Then one day, we can say to our children and our grandchildren,
"We kept the faith.  We fought for freedom and we won.

    We proudly give to you the US of America, free, strong,
proud, and one nation under God."
-----
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