Politicians are dangerous. Let us not forget that Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were all once favorites of their people. It was their consolidation of federal powers and a concomitant withdrawal of civil liberties that made those societies the totalitarian states they were. For years after World War II, Westerners asked themselves what they would have done had they lived in these states? Would they have stood up to these regimes? Or worse yet, would they have even seen them coming?

Today it appears that the Senate has shot down a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. To most Americans, they hear only that a patriotic symbol they believe in was not protected. However, the issue is actually larger than most politicians would lead us to believe. The Supreme Court, whose job it is to protect minority interests and rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution must balance the desires of the majority as expressed through Congress. The Court has ruled that flag burning is "symbolic speech" and thus protected by the First Amendment. This amendment is an attempt by Congress to tell the Court they were wrong. Certain congresspersons have not hid this fact. You might say to yourself, flag burning? Who cares about that speech? Or who cares about the hate-speech of the KKK? Or pornography maybe? Why keep any of it? Because once we start limiting ourselves, we cease to be a land of the free. Moreover, as the infamous pornography publisher, Larry Flint, said, (and I paraphrase) if the law will protect a scumbag like me, it'll protect you. These "rights" are not just the rights of hatemongers and criminals--they are your rights too.

Consider also this amendment in conjunction with the proposed amendment prohibiting homosexuals from marrying. This would implicitly, in part, repeal the 14th Amendment's promise of equal protections of the law. Once the homosexuals can be legally discriminated against, who's next? Atheists? Jews? Blacks? There is a reason that we have so rarely amended the Constitution in this country. It is the bedrock of all the ideals of this nation. It stands for and enumerates the freedoms and liberties so many have fought and died for in this country. To give it away for such a trivial reason as setting fire to a piece of cloth, even if that piece of cloth is an important symbol, because we don't like the message this sends, leads inexorably away from freedom, and down a path of intolerance and thought-control.

Americans accept the notion that there is no tyranny by the majority in this country. We are after all, a free society. That is, all persons are protected by the Constitution. Who would have thought it would come down to the day when the America we love could be governed by tyranny? Turns out, it just takes a 2/3 majority.