MiniSky: Thoughts About Everything

MSNBC has this transcript for the show “Scarborough Country” last Friday night. It included a segment on the Boy Scouts and the Department of Defense, discussing the recent partial settlement of an ACLU lawsuit alleging improper taxpayer support of a private, religious organization.

As you might expect, Pat Buchanan got it off to a stunningly biased start:

BUCHANAN: Welcome back to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.

The ACLU wants to purge God from America‘s public square. And now they have the Boy Scouts as public enemy No. 1. In their latest assault, they targeted not only the Boy Scouts, but also the Department of Defense, accusing the Pentagon of condoning religious bigotry by supporting the Boy Scouts.

Last week, the Pentagon caved in to the ACLU and now military bases worldwide can no longer sponsor Boy Scout troops.

Joining me now, Larry Walters, a First Amendment attorney who chairs the legal panel of the ACLU central chapter, and Peter Ferrara, executive director of the American Civil Rights Union and the Scouting Legal Defense Fund.

Larry Walters, what is the source of this ACLU vendetta against the Boy Scouts, simply because they believe in God and they don‘t think it‘s an idea to have homosexuals be Scout masters taking kids for overnight trips?

Note how Patrick has already mischaracterized the ACLU’s position before anyone has even spoken, effectively setting up a straw man to be knocked down later. They want to purge God, they view the Boy Scouts as a “public enemy” to be “assaulted,” and their position is one not to be agreed with, but one for a reluctant victim to “cave in to.”

Buchanan also mischaracterizes the position of the Boy Scouts of America with his question, suggesting that the BSA has a problem with gay adults sleeping overnight with the kids rather than a broader policy of denying membership to any sexual, atheist, or agnostic member (youth or adult) on the grounds that these types of people are not “morally straight” enough to join.

But that’s not all. The “balance” member of this “discussion” quickly weighs in on the ACLU’s argument with this gem:

PETER FERRARA, SCOUTING LEGAL DEFENSE FUND: Well, first of all, I want to say the First Amendment says nothing about a separation of church and state. That is just completely false, what he just said. The First Amendment prohibits an establishment of religion.

Following along so far? The government can’t establish religion, nor can it prevent the free exercise of religion. But in Ferrera’s brain, that doesn’t amount to “separation.” Of course, “separation” is just shorthand for saying that something violates either the establishment clause or the free exercise clause. But Ferrara won’t let that slow him down — he’s got a straw man to prop up:

And we don‘t have an establishment of an official religion in America just because an Army base sponsors a Boy Scout troop. That is typical of the ACLU‘s perverted reading of the Constitution that they‘re trying to impose on the country. . . .

And here it is: Ferrara wants us to believe that the First Amendment only prohibits a “state religion” — any other entanglement of government and religion is fair game. Furthermore, since the Boy Scouts are just a private, religious group and not a “religion,” it must be okay for them to get taxpayer support. This may be what First Amendment law looks like in Mr. Ferrara’s own personal utopia, but that’s not the law here.

I’d like to point out that Mr. Ferrara of the Scouting Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) used the adjective “perverted” three times in as many minutes when describing the ACLU and their position on the separation of church and state. Which, of course, also happens to be essentially the same as the current position of the Supreme Court of the United States, but don’t let that little fact stand in the way of a good put-down! We’ve got some political theatre to put on here.

Unfortunately, the ACLU guy, Walters, is in the wrong mode for this audience. He’s stepped into a WWF “debate” ring still expecting to fight with Marquis of Queensbury rules. Buchanan isn’t, though. Neither is Ferrara. Walters makes a solid, factual, and legally correct argument, or at least tries to… watch what happens next:

WALTERS: Well, let me first respond to the statement that the First Amendment does not require a separation of church and state. It absolutely does. The United States Supreme Court has recognized over and over again that the establishment…

FERRARA: That‘s false. Those words don‘t appear in the Constitution. That is false.

WALTERS: I‘m sorry, sir. I was speaking.

FERRARA: You‘re being untruthful.

WALTERS: I‘m sorry. I was speaking.

FERRARA: Yes, but you‘re not being truthful, though. You‘re lying.

(CROSSTALK)

The Defender-of-the-Boy-Scouts ™ repeatedly cuts him off and accuses him of lying, and for what? For repeating what is pretty much a settled matter of First Amendment law. I guess Mr. Ferrara wasn’t ever a Scout, or else he forgot those points of the Scout Law like “a Scout is Courteous.”

But this is almost beside the point. How unusual is it, after all, to see hypocrisy and sophistry coming from those arguing against church-state separation? And we all know where Pat Buchanan stands on this. Even if we didn’t, it’s made perfectly clear from his introduction to this segment.

My question is this: Why did the ACLU send an accomplished boxer to a political knife fight? What kind of audience do you think that Scarborough and Buchanan have, anyway? If you’re going to send a guest on the show, don’t send a punching bag, for pity’s sake. Send someone who knows how to fight on that turf.

Jon Stewart has it right — these aren’t debate shows, they’re political theater. The sooner we start to realize this and adjust our tactics accordingly, the better off we’ll be.

I’m not trying to malign Mr. Walters here in any way, since he’s obviously right as a matter of law and I’m sure he’s tremendously competent in the courtroom. But he also got baited into a linguistic trap by Buchanan a few times, and as a result, he wasn’t able to make a very strong showing for the constitutional argument. Instead, the bratty Ferrara got the last word in the piece.

Please, please, please! Somebody at the ACLU pay attention to this! Call George Lakoff. Get your PR folks some more training from successful politicians who know how to fight trench warfare in 30 seconds in front of a camera. There’s a lot of room for improvement here, and I desperately want to see you do better. From where I sit right now, the truth is getting buried in the noise.

We can do better than this.