We're Too Good To Call You Racist, Ignorant, Rubes Names.

If you consider yourself a conservative, or believe in individual liberty, or believe government isn't the answer but the problem, The Episcopal Church (tm) hates you:

But here they are, the nutcases, parading in prime time as if they were a legitimate alternative in a deeply divided nation that is struggling with huge and vexing issues.

Thanks to Rupert Murdoch, they even have their own television network to legitimize streams of vitriol, conspiracy theories, fears, rages, and suspicion. In the brave new world of leveling-by-Internet, anybody can say anything and claim to be an authority.

Who's to say a website is packed with lies or useful information? For example, I followed the thread of a comment by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., criticizing Tea Party folks for threatening other people's free speech. By the time his original words had fanned out to two dozen right-wing websites, they had morphed into a preference for terrorists over Tea Partiers.

Here is the "comment" by Sen. Lautenberg to which the Rev. Ehrich apparently alludes. Listen to the linked video closely.

“They [Tea Party Republicans] don’t deserve the freedoms in the Constitution, but we’ll give it to them anyway.”

Two points here:

First, in 2006 Lautenberg voted to preserve habeas corpus, a constitutional right, for Guantanamo detainees. So yes, Rev. Ehrich, Sen. Lautenberg does believe Islamofascist terrorists, who are trying to kill us in the name of their God, are more deserving of the blessings of our Constitution than his fellow Americans, like myself, who disagree with his politics but want to kill no one.

Second, and more foundational to this whole national debate, is the Senator - as do most of The Left / Mainstream Media - seems to think our Rights come from government. Government "gives" them to us; and government can take them away. We conservatives and Tea Partiers - who the Rev. Ehrich implies are the "bigots who burn, shoot and shout" - believe as our Founders did: Our Rights are derived from our Creator (whoever or whatever we may believe that to be). They cannot be taken away (only repressed), and the whole reason our government exists is to secure those Rights. This is the core of the American experiment. This is also a point Rev. Ehrich misses entirely, or ignores because he believes, as does Sen. Lautenberg, in the Monarchist / Marxist notion that Rights come only from government.