Von Bismark and Flag Burning
The Prussian stateman Otto Von Bismarck remarked in 1867 that, "Politics is the art of the possible." Some historians have viewed that sentiment as setting the bar incredibly low for the body politic - even though Von Bismark was the man who in January of 1871 united 25 previously independent states into what we now know as Germany.
As I look at the current race for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, however, I can't help but wonder if the bar really could be set any lower.
Earlier this month, Republicans in the U.S. Senate introduced a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban desecration of the American flag. U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) voted in favor of this amendment, even though there hasn't been a public act of flag burning in years.
Of course, Stabenow's vote wasn't the thing that made me start wondering if the bar could possibly be set any lower. Instead, it's the fact that her Republican challengers, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Rev. Keith Butler of Troy, have each publicly criticized Stabenow for voting in favor of Republican's proposed amendment.
So, to recap for everyone at home, first the Republicans sponsor a constitutional amendment that was so important that it had to wait until an election year before they did anything and then they criticize a Democrat for going along with them on it.
I ask you, could our standards in American politics really get any lower?
Interested readers can read the Lansing State Journal's coverage of Stabenow's vote as well as Butler's and Bouchard's critisism of it at http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060713/NEWS01/607130344/1001/news
