Mayor Bloomberg’s defence of the Ground Zero mosque illustrates how the liberal version of civil rights is the worst of both worlds for ordinary people.

The Mayor of New York defended the ground zero mosque by appealing to the principles of religious freedom and the right of Americans to do with their private property as they wish – both rights that conservatives hold dear.

Let’s take the property rights argument first. As Charles Krauthammer points out, Disney Corporation was not allowed to build an amusement park near the Manassas Battlefield and a commercial viewing tower was not allowed to be built on private land adjacent to Gettysburg. A broad coalition stopped both projects on the grounds that they would vulgarize the hallowed ground of great Civil War battlefield sites. Why didn’t liberals like Bloomberg defend the property rights of private citizens then? In fact, given the fact that the Ground Zero mosque could have been stopped with garden-variety zoning laws, does Michael Bloomberg’s principled defence of the mosque owner’s property rights mean that the mayor believes that municipal zoning laws are an unconstitutional infringement on property rights? Of course not. Don’t get cute. The only property rights he is interested in defending are those of the radical Imams who want to thumb their nose at America. If you are a patriotic, hard working New Yorker, he couldn’t care less about your property rights. So you’d better toe the lines on those municipal ordnances buddy, or Mayor Bloomberg will come down on you like a ton of bricks. He's a law-and-order guy you know.

Let’s move on to the religious argument. Mayor Bloomberg contends that stopping the ground zero mosque would violate of the freedom of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment. But what about the southern courthouse that has the 10 Commandments inscribed on the wall? Scrub it clean, and fast. Never mind that 95% of the residents of that county are practicing Christians. And the volunteer fire department in Texas that wants to put up a Nativity scene at Christmas? Faggettaboutit. Separation of church and state pal. And don’t even mention state’s rights, that’s raaaacist! It seems that when Christianity is concerned, freedom of religion means freedom from religion. But when Islam is concerned, then freedom of religion is a requirement for the state to go along with it. When President Obama has a Ramadan dinner, no problem. Haven’t you heard? we got separation of Church and State not separation of Mosque and State (to borrow a phrase from Ezra Levant).

It’s the same with the US constitution in general. Any fair reading of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution limits the power of Congress to write laws on 18 enumerated topics and only those topics, but hey that isn’t a problem because the Supreme Court can distort the Interstate Commerce Clause to the point where it would be virtually unrecognizable by the men who actually wrote it in order to allow Congress to do darn near everything it wants to, 9^th and 10 Amendments be damned. Those amendments aren’t to be mentioned in polite company anyway. The religious rights of detainees in Guantanamo require that they get access to the Koran and be given the opportunity to pray towards Mecca every day, never mind that they are not US citizens, nor residents of the US, not on US soil nor even lawful combatants (as defined by the Geneva Convention). On the other hand, it’s no problem at all to infringe upon an American citizen’s right to freedom of political speech through the yoke of McCain-Feingold, net neutrality or the fairness doctrine. 

The end result of all this is the worst of both worlds for the hard-working American. His rights are trampled and hemmed in at every turn, but when he needs the government to fulfill its basic functions - functions such as, say, border security - the government’s actions are hemmed in by an interpretation of civil rights so expansive that it is checked only when those rights begin to actually benefit him.

Bottom line: the liberal interpretation of civil rights screws patriotic Americans at every turn.

Comments

[Frances]

Just look at the Greek Orthodox church - damaged in 9/11 - and the problems they are having rebuilding!!

[real conservative]

People just starting to learn that the richest don't have any political ideals other than their own agendas?

[Joe Blow]

What a pile of garbage you write!

[Cincinnatus]

I love the sound of left-wing commenters cursing and damning without making a coherent argument. It smells like ... victory.