Declaring the NRA a terrorist organization and then these declaring Democrats to be a Socialist, Statist Religion are both ridiculous.
Dear
BlindBoo
The latter can be PROVEN to be a system of Beliefs.
For example, the Texas Democratic Party Platform clearly makes statements
IN WRITING such as
"We BELIEVE that health care is a right not a privilege"
Thus that is a political BELIEF.
Conservatives BELIEVE in Limited Govt.
So that is a political BELIEF.
In matters of personal beliefs, especially religiously held,
the First Amendment makes it clear that federal govt
cannot establish or prohibit the free exercise of religion.
And the Fourteenth Amendment extended the protection
of the laws to all persons under STATE jurisdiction as well,
not just federal. While the Civil Rights act expanded these
rights to PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, in addition to State and Federal Govt.
Under Civil Rights laws there are policies against
DISCRIMINATION by CREED.
Are you telling me
BlindBoo that
Liberalism, Conservatism, Socialism and Constitutionalism
are not Creeds?
Liberal political beliefs such as "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." or "Government of the people by the people and for the people" Or Healthcare is a right" are simply not Religious Creeds and should not be conflated or treated as such.
Dear
BlindBoo
Where ALL people AGREE on beliefs,
such as believing in the role of Federal Government in
providing Military Security and Defense for the whole nation,
that is not in dispute because we agree. They are still beliefs,
but not contested unless someone's beliefs are being violated.
(currently concerning immigration and the wall, yes, even those
beliefs are being disputed and contested because some people
do not consent to how policies are enforced or not enforced.)
It's where we don't all agree on beliefs, that it causes
conflicts from one party trying to impose their beliefs over
the others by majority rule or judicial rule through government.
For example:
* prochoice vs. prolife beliefs
* LGBT beliefs or Christian beliefs in conjunction with public schools
beliefs for or against the death penalty and euthanasia/assisted suicide
* and this whole liberal/conservative split between
people who put promoting general welfare on govt
more than civil liberties and due process; or enforcing
limits on govt and maximizing liberty of people to manage their own programs.
If we don't address the root issues of political beliefs,
we will forever fight over gun rights, voting rights,
marriage and abortion rights, Christian and LGBT policies
in schools, etc. etc. because we haven't established a
mutual agreement to respect each other's beliefs enough
to keep them out of govt, and ONLY establish "public laws"
WHERE EVERYONE AGREES MUTUALLY.
STICK TO JUST THE TERMS where people CONSENT,
and we can have consistent law and order through govt,
without any need to change beliefs or coerce anyone. (another
example
BlindBoo, we all agree on laws treating MURDER
as illegal, even if some people believe in Buddhist laws or
Biblical laws or civil/criminal or natural laws that teach that
this is wrong. Those are still religious/moral codes we are
establishing, but because we AGREE then we don't contest it.
The concept of "equal justice" is faith based, not proven to
exist by science, yet because we AGREE on seeking "justice"
we allow laws and traditions in govt to cite "justice" which is
no different from a religious belief based solely on faith, not proven.)
Where we don't agree on beliefs, we should separate
funding of policies instead of imposing on each other.
Where we AGREE on roles and terms of government,
we won't fight because we will be in agreement. So that's
a huge clue as to what is constitutionally within govt
jurisdiction. While the RELIGIOUS beliefs that are not
govt's place to force people to change or compromise,
those areas where we will never agree aren't supposed
to be decided by govt in the first place. If we keep putting
that on govt to dictate one side or the other, that's why
the conflicts go in circles, back and forth, because it's
unconstitutional anyway to abuse govt to force beliefs
on others who don't consent. Taxpayers deserve equal
choice of funding where we have different beliefs, similar
to religious organizations that set up and run their own
programs and schools under the policies they subscribe to.
We wouldn't HAVE these problems if we kept social
programming that involve personal beliefs and decisions
out of govt jurisdiction and let people retain democratic
free choice instead of trying to mandate "one policy fits all."