{"id":77010,"date":"2014-05-31T04:16:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-31T08:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=77010"},"modified":"2014-06-02T11:21:02","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T15:21:02","slug":"amendments-of-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/amendments-of-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Amendments Of The Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I’m a fan of Texas populist Jim Hightower, a man cut from the same cloth as dearly departed Texans Molly Ivins and her lifelong friend, Governor Ann Richards. Hightower is a man of the people, driven out of Texas\u00a0government by its uniquely rabid brand of conservatism. He recently wrote a blog piece entitled, “Has The United States Gone Crazy?” <\/p>\n

\"PoliticalHis answer — yes and no — illustrates the dichotomy of our social conflicts but reflects the hope of our growing, if fledgling, movement toward populism. Nothing less can counter the sweep of political radicalism, corporate control, and the staggering political influence of family trusts that have turned us into an oligarchy.<\/p>\n

Yeah, crazy. This was the week that a three-year-old kid in Arizona shot and killed his 18-month-old brother with a neighbor’s gun, a five-year-old in Kentucky shot and killed his two-year-old sister, and a little three-year-old girl in Utah fatally shot her two-year-old brother. This is the week when an emotionally disturbed young man in Southern California stabbed his three college roommates to death prior to a shooting spree that killed three more and injured 13, before turning the gun on himself. Despite multiple warnings, from postings on social media to parental alerts to the police, the young man was able to legally purchase multiple semiautomatic handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammo. This is also the week that conservative deep-thinker, Palin-supporter and failed political candidate, Joe the Plumber, responded to the moving plea for the end of gun violence from the father of a Santa Barbara shooting victim, by tweeting \u201cYour dead kids don\u2019t trump my constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Crazy. The on-going problem of getting adequate and\/or approved drugs to kill death row inmates resulted in Justice Sam Alito halting an execution here in Missouri, leaving the situation under advisement. That didn’t stop our attorney general from announcing a death date for the next in line, right around the corner. And it didn’t stop the Tennessee governor this week, frustrated by his own death-row hiccups,\u00a0from signing a bill allowing the use of the electric chair if lethal drugs aren’t forthcoming. Electrocution has been considered ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment for decades, but the rush is on for some of the Midwestern states with crowded death rows. A politician in Florida has suggested the return of the firing squad, and, given how many Floridians are carrying concealed weapons, that should prove very popular. It’s almost as though these state systems think their ability to kill off their unwanted is short-lived (to God\/dess’s ear).<\/p>\n

In that regard, this is the week that the Supreme Court handed down a number of decisions — their Hobby Lobby verdict should come next week — including a break from the dominance of the\u00a0Federalist faction\u00a0in the review\u00a0of IQ requirements for death row candidates. Based on the latest disability standards of the American Psychiatric Association, Arthur Kennedy (who serves as the right-leaning swing vote but went left this time) made it clear in his majority opinion that ” … intellectual disability is a condition, not a number.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a rebuke to the\u00a0four conservative justices who are hostile to the notion of “evolvement” in psychiatric opinion. Frankly, I think their grievance disputes the concept of evolvement itself, humankind in this nation having sprung, perfect and unchangeable, into the Gawd-approved political and social contract of 1776.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the conservatives, who traditionally champion harsh punishment, have been thwarted in their quest for absolutes. They wanted a black and white template to indicate who can and cannot be held responsible for their crimes due to mental impairment. The dissenting opinion (from Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas) railed against psychiatric opinion, insisting that the 8th Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) should reflect ” … our society\u2019s standards\u2014which is to say, the standards of the American people\u2014not the standards of professional associations, which at best represent the views of a small professional elite.”<\/p>\n

I wonder if it occurs to the right-leaning justices that they themselves\u00a0represent the view of a professional elite,\u00a0and are not necessarily the spokespersons for “American standards.” I’m forever astounded that the conservatives think they are the only game in town. Reminds me of the old joke about St. Peter taking a newcomer on a tour of heaven, shushing him and telling him to tip-toe past the open door where a large group of Southern Baptists are gathered because “they think they’re the only ones here.”<\/p>\n

Ninety-four-year old John Paul Stevens, retired Supreme Court Justice,\u00a0has published a slim volume of suggestions entitled Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution<\/em>,\u00a0a half dozen small changes that would clarify some of our amendments, consistent with “what the framers really intended in the first place.” Regarding populism — policy for the good of the people — Stevens proposes changing the First Amendment’s protection of free speech to allow “reasonable limits” on the amount of money candidates and their supporters can spend on elections. That would tilt the game board back into place, wouldn’t it!<\/p>\n

Another change he would make, the addition of just five words, would no doubt create chaos in the Red states and cause the NRA full meltdown. Stevens proposes that we bring the Second Amendment into the 21st century by adding the phrase “when serving in the militia.” The Amendment would then read in full, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed,” making Joe the Plumber’s cold-hearted commentary moot. Yet another suggestion ends the death penalty, making it prohibited as are excessive bail, and cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n

Amendments to the Constitution are tough to pass, of course, but they’ve been passed before, an example to the whole of the republic that our national vision, as proposed by the founders, is a flexible, evolving blueprint for liberty. The process requires both Houses of Congress to propose the amendment with a two-thirds vote, then the proposal to be ratified by three-fourths of State legislatures.<\/p>\n

That’s a lot of consensus in this day of fractured politics, but if we look at the movement to repeal\u00a0Citizens United<\/em>, we find a number of states in favor of repeal, with any number of\u00a0individual counties and cities<\/a>\u00a0endorsing its demise. In addition, there are\u00a0several grassroots groups working toward its end, including Senator Al Franken, who is calling for an amendment overturning the ruling. Google ‘amend\u00a0Citizens United’<\/em>\u00a0for a listing of activism opportunities.<\/p>\n

These amendments are neither red nor blue, Dem nor Pub. Much of this should easily find bi-partisan support, especially among those who have found party membership — EITHER party — distasteful. The Pubs have radicalized to the point of future obscurity, given their inability to flex or create a tent large enough for all. The Dems even find themselves distasteful, caught in a system that pits their better instincts against their will to survive politically.<\/p>\n

And it’s easy enough to be cynical about populism on the left, despite the ideals of Warren and Sanders and Grayson. Easier than that to blow raspberries at populism on the right, merging Tea Party outrage with Libertarian isolationism, \u00e0 la Rand Paul and Paul Ryan (Ayn Rand poster children.) But cynicism is the coward’s way out, and populism as Jim Hightower conceives it calls us to our better angels, to what we know deep in our hearts is not just right, but worth fighting for.<\/p>\n

We’re poised on almost three weeks of Mercury in Cancer, trined to Nessus,\u00a0as outlined by Eric<\/a>\u00a0here on the Planet Waves blog. Cancer is a sign that feels deeply and has a tendency to self-protect. That’s not all Cancer is famous for, however. It takes the pulse of the people, has a populist ease that’s based on intuitive familiarity with the essential life-giving concepts of nurture and home and safety. It knows how to\u00a0care for itself and others. We could use some of that in our political conversation right now. We could use some empathy for one another, for the lasting virtues of friendship and charity and compassion within our human family.<\/p>\n

With Mercury urging clear thinking and responsibility, we can muck out some of the fears that we’ve tucked back in the emotional corners of our consciousness. We can renew our contract with ourselves to provide for one another in kindness, in safety and in integrity. The populism Hightower talks of<\/a> is a reminder that we are the very people who are necessary to make the changes that lay ahead, the citizens of today and\u00a0tomorrow\u00a0who will build a future from the rubble of the\u00a0collapsed era we find around us today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves I’m a fan of Texas populist Jim Hightower, a man cut from the same cloth as dearly departed Texans Molly Ivins and her lifelong friend, Governor Ann Richards. Hightower is a man of the people, driven out of Texas\u00a0government by its uniquely rabid brand of conservatism. He recently wrote … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}