Sometimes I love getting hate mail

This afternoon, I received an email from someone who read my last column. I wanted to share it here. All email I get is subject to being posted on my blog.

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Nanapam55@aol.com wrote:

Dear Troy,
I just read my complimentary copy of The Selma News and remembered why I stopped subscribing. The election is over, my friend, so you can stop the "scare tactics" now. (Maybe that's why your party got beaten so thoroughly.) If there is a lesson to be learned from the failed campaign of John McCain, it is that people don't respond to the fear of gloom and doom. I would think that someone in your position would realize that and support the newly elected president at least until you have a reason not too. He isn't even in office yet, for Heaven's sake!

First of all, no one could possibly manipulate the Constitution any more than George Bush and Dick Cheney have. From illegal wire tapping to an illegal war, to Gbay, the Constitution has been mutilated under this administration. Our new president elect is, as I'm sure you know, a Constitutional Law Professor, so my guess is , he knows more about the document than you or I. I wouldn't be too worried about the Constitution if I were you. No one is going to take away your gun or your right to free speech or your freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. That one, I believe, will be even safer under the new administration.
Any person who can't see that Bush has taken us down the wrong path just hasn't been paying attention.

I knew Mr. and Mrs. Tom Davis, the original owners of the Johnstonian Sun. Mrs. Davis was one of my favorite teachers and boy, was she political! She would absolutely turn over in her grave if she could read some of the garbage being spewed in her newspaper! Conservative twaddle, I like to call it.
As a firm believer in the Constitutional right to free speech, I totally agree that you have the right to say what you want in the newspaper. Please respect my right to totally disagree with you.
Respectfully,
Pam Bizzell

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Here was my response.

Thank you for your input, Pam.

You are correct that there was much to be learned from the failed campaign of John McCain. First and foremost is that if you are supposed to be a conservative party, nominate a conservative to be your candidate, not a centrist. McCain ran a horrible campaign and he got what he deserved, defeat. By the way, the Republican Party is NOT my party. Before you make such assumptions, you might want to do a little research. I am not member of the GOP.

Scare tactics? Nah, just making observations and commentary on what actually is. It is what it is, madame. Puppies grow up to be dogs. Snakes bite. Bees sting. It is their nature. Socialists do what they do and are very predictable. All one has to do is to read "A Communist Manifesto" to see what the leftists in this country have done and will do. Obama is an avowed socialist. If it quacks like a duck, well, you know the rest.

Actually, many of the accusations of "illegal" wiretapping and an "illegal war" are unfounded, though I do disagree with much of their implementation. I did NOT support our invasion of Iraq. Why? Because we did not have a declaration of war. However, I am a Constitutional scholar, unlike Barack Obama. It is folly to buy into the notion that he was actually a professor of Constitutional studies. I teach on the Constitution and US history nearly every week and I guarantee I have taught more on and know more about the document than Obama ever thought to have realized. I understand that though the Constitution calls for a declaration of war by Congress, there is zero provision for the form in which that declaration shall be delivered. Congress did indeed authorize the use of the military. Thus, that may very well be tantamount to a declaration of war. I have had this discussion with other very learned men who could put Obama to shame with their knowledge of the Constitution, its origins, its intents, and its implementation.

If you think that Bush and Cheney have manipulated the Constitution, then you obviously have no idea of the role that Dick Cheney has in the government. Furthermore, you are forgetting people like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. They have butchered the document just as bad. This is not to take in to account the New Deal or other leftist, illegal schemes passed by previous Democrat administrations. If you are going to point fingers at Bush (and I am NOT a Bush supporter, believe me. I have despised many things he has done in his administration up to and including wanting to slap him silly just today) then to be fair, you have to point fingers at LBJ and FDR. They have done far worse than W ever thought of doing in mangling the Constitution. Fair is fair.

You say that nobody is going to take away our freedom of speech or right to own firearms. They thought the same thing in 1930's Germany. They thought the same thing in Australia, England, and Russia. Yes, I would be worried about The Constitution, since if it is re-written, any such freedoms can be just as easily removed as they were penned into the document. That is the bottom line. If a socialist President who believes that the problem with the Constitution is that it does not provide for redistribution of wealth (this statement is well documented), a complicit Congress that will appoint delegates to a convention, and an ignorant public lacking any sort of civics knowledge or ethics is going to have a say, then we will indeed have a rewritten constitution. It is what it is.

I find it interesting that you would find The Selma News to be full of conservative twaddle, since for a long time, they had leftist columnists and the majority of the pages are news, not opinion. You are welcome to disagree with me all you wish. You have every right to be wrong.

Troy LaPlante