Senator and self-licensed laser surgeon Rand Paul, best known for making his father seem sane by comparison, recently remarked that the Supreme Court declaring the Affordable Care Act (AKA ObamaCare) constitutional didn’t make it so. Actually, according to the Constitution itself, isn’t that exactly what it means? Paul is essentially putting himself into a paradoxical position here. Thinking about it, though, I have to wonder. Some people seem to hold the Constitution in the same esteem in which fundamentalists hold the Bible. That is, they think it’s not just the work of intelligent but flawed humans, but rather the inerrant word of God. I always wondered about this when it came to the Bible, because if God allegedly wrote the Ten Commandments with his own hand, why not the Bible as well? Why go through all that trouble of inspiring humans? Some omnipotent deity! But anyway, another important thing to consider about these people is that, for all they talk about the Bible, they sometimes go directly against what it says. Apparently it’s the spirit that’s more important than the letter, even though they’d claim otherwise. Is this the same way Paul’s crowd looks at the Constitution? As a divine document rather than the work of humans, and to be taken in some sense somehow greater than its actual words? That’s the impression I sometimes get. As such, Paul can’t say that he feels the decision is constitutional but wrong, because the Constitution can’t really be wrong in his mind. After all, it’s the work of the divine Aqua Buddha. Is there something in this, or am I really far off the mark?
Regardless, happy Fourth of July, everybody!
