cognitive dissident

I knew it was time to dive back into the troll-heavy waters of my local newspaper letters-to-the-editor page when I read this gem:

Obama's constitutional writings are troubling

In Barack Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope," we get a view of the senator that the McCain camp has ignored.

Obama calls the Constitution "stodgy traditions of a distant past." He says the idea that the original intention of the Constitution can and must be followed if we would have a safe republic is a "myth." He states that "fidelity to these rules will not guarantee a just society."

Also rejected, Obama claims, is "the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology." Really? What about the Bill of Rights, the protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and freedom of worship?

Obama regards the Constitution as "a conversation to be had" with "all citizens" to "test their ideas against an external reality." Whose reality? Whose final decision?

[name and address redacted]

I responded with this:

misinterpretations of Obama's writings are troubling

A recent letter misinterpreted Senator Obama's view of the Constitution, and twisted his words to make them appear to mean the opposite of what he wrote. Whether done accidentally or deliberately, the letter imputed a relativistic view to Obama that contradicts his actual words. These misrepresentations need to be corrected.

In the third chapter of The Audacity of Hope, Obama expresses a sensible middle ground between a myth-based strict constructionism and a foundationless relativism. Far from believing the Constitution to be "the stodgy traditions of a distant past," Obama clearly repudiates that view, calling it:

the freedom of the relativist, the rule breaker, the teenager who has discovered his parents are imperfect and has learned to play one off of the other--the freedom of the apostate.

And yet, ultimately, such apostasy leaves me unsatisfied as well.

I can't do justice to all of Obama's constitutional views here, so I encourage anyone who wants to know what he really thinks about the Constitution to read The Audacity of Hope. The incessant false rumors about Obama--claiming that he's a Muslim, a socialist, the Anti-Christ, a foreign-born Kenyan citizen who won't recite the Pledge and snubs our soldiers overseas--discredit those who create and spread them, and debase our political discourse.

Can we stick to the facts, please?