Tired Of The Dance

It's getting to be a ritual. The Senate votes on a flag-burning amendment and comes up a yea or two short. The reason it's so close is this amendment is popular, so as many senators as possible, especially Dems, want to vote for it, but enough are held in reserve to guarantee they don't get the required two-thirds.

I've argued against this amendment so much in the past that I'm not even gonna repeat what I've said--I'll just sit tight until the next vote. So when Bill Frist says "countless men and women have died defending that flag" I won't bother to point out that no one dies for a piece of cloth, but rather the ideas behind it, and the greatest idea behind America is personal freedom.

I find these votes a cynical exercise. I suppose a fair amount of Republicans actually favor carving out this exception to the First Amendment and would be glad to see people rot in jail for expressing their hatred of America, but my guess is if they voted secretly, they couldn't even muster 50%.