Conservative Firebrands Don't Actually Care About the Constitution

Ostensibly in an effort to cater to the partisan ideologues that watch 24-hour news networks and provide them with their ratings, CNN hired conservative blogger Erick Erickson in March to contribute to John King's program. On his radio show on Thursday, Erickson said that if a census worker with an American Community Survey form came by his house, he would "pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door." He went on:

"They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying. The servants are becoming the masters. We are working for the government. We are becoming enslaved by the government."

In fact, there are many right-wing demagogues who are lashing out at the census, among them Glenn Beck and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). What these fear-inspiring, rage-inducing haranguers fail to realize (or acknowledge, depending on how manipulative versus just plain stupid they are) is that the census is clearly prescribed in the United States Constitution, the very document that they constantly purport to be defending.

Why don't allegedly objective blogs and media stations call these people out on their hypocrisy and prevarications? In the Politico story, why does Politico at no point explain that in fact no one in the ACS is harassing or threatening to imprison anyone? That the census consists of all of 4 questions about your name, sex, age, and race? How can these people be allowed to spit out sheer crap, only to have their crap reported on in the media instead of debunked? Is this really all about ratings? The "fourth branch of government" is willing to contribute to the instillment of fear and the provocation of rage in our most gullible citizens simply to increase ratings with their sensationalist stories? What if this adulteration of their role in society ends up leading to further rage, intimidation, and even death? Have we really gotten to a point where no one in the media will stand up and try to reform this detrimental way of providing the "news"?

United States Census 2010

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Images: US Constitution (Buckeye AZ)