Dobson v. American history

I have written of my disdain for James Dobson here before. Growing up, I only knew of him as a kindly Christian psychologist. I remember our church screening some of his videos. They were fine, as I recall. They were about adolescence and growing up. I learned something from them--though I can't recall what right now. I certainly don't remember him being overly political.

All that has changed completely. Dobson is mad with power. I saw that last year when George Stephanopolous challenged how Dobson had spoken about his political adversaries. Dobson responded arrogantly--in fact denying that someone like George had even the right to challenge if Dobson was acting in a Christian way. That is unbelievable arrogance. No one is above reproach.

Well, now his arrogance is really showing. If you read this you will see the rantings of a powerhungry madman.

But beneath his rantings lie a serious attack on the American system of government. Dobson said last week in "Justice Sunday" (which one blogger said sounded like a Professional Wrestling promo) that the courts should not be allowed to review legislation. He says that Marbury v. Madison was a horrible mistake and should have never happened. He threatens those Senators who might not vote his way. He essentially says that God agrees with him--which I think is another note of insanity.

Two points and then I will get off this. One, it is very interesting that he quotes Jefferson to support his attack on Marbury v. Madison, yet he and David Barton completely reject Jefferson when it comes to separation of church and state. It is Jefferson's letter to the Danbury church that gives us that phrase, and they constantly dismiss that. But here, Jefferson is their guy.

Second, and I think I might have said this before, there is an inherent contradiction between the attack on judicial review and the attack on the filibuster. As the blogger Hokie noted on his blog Uncivil Discourse (and he means that, btw), the filibuster is one of those ways that the legislative branch gets to check the power of the judiciary. Not only that, but Dobson is fighting to pack the courts with hard line conservatives AND remove their right to review legislation. Does anyone reading this think that he would take that line if the legislature and executive were liberals? Hell no. He would want the conservative courts to keep an eye on the liberals.

Molly Ivins put it best (thanks to Bruce for the quote:

Last time I checked, no one had elected Dobson to decide who is a Christian and who is not. It's a joke that the right wing claims it is against "judicial activists." What they want are judicial activists who agree with them. These people don't want to govern, they want to rule.[emphasis mine]