"God Bless America" to be added to Alabama license plates

[minionofmidas]

I don't care about the God reference. It's a very stupid song, though. (This land is your land was originally written as an answer to it, btw.)

[minionofmidas]

What a horrible bill. Thankfully, it will get struck down if ever challenged in the courts.

Is it unconstitutional?  I don't think so.  There is nothing in there that says a state cannot recognize God, nor display it on Government property.

Requiring every driver to have a "God Bless America" license plate is definitely unconstitutional, just like requiring every driver to wear a cross would be unconstitutional.

I would suppose that requiring every driver to have a license plate with any sort of political message, no matter what the slogan is, would be unconstitutional actually...

[minionofmidas]

I don't care about the God reference. It's a very stupid song, though. (This land is your land was originally written as an answer to it, btw.)

lewis is a woody guthrie fan?

Don't be silly, I wasn't even alive to watch him die of Saint Vitus Dance. I'm a Rambling Jack Elliott fan.

[minionofmidas]

Not really ... got nothing against him but never really got into his works - unlike his father's.
Record I've been listening to mostly today and yesterday is "The Revolution Starts Now" by Steve Earle, btw.

[minionofmidas]

Not really ... got nothing against him but never really got into his works - unlike his father's.
Record I've been listening to mostly today and yesterday is "The Revolution Starts Now" by Steve Earle, btw.

lewis, have you ever heard of a group called the old crow medicine show?

No.

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I'll try keeping it in mind.

[minionofmidas]

Let's try this.  What if Tennessee or Alabama passed a law that stated that all license plates said, "Vote Democratic".  Would you mind that?

How about "Don Johnson should be dragged from a pickup truck"?

[minionofmidas]

"There is nothing wrong with a poll tax". Yep, another excellent example.

[minionofmidas]

There is no "right" to "vote" (summon the coercive forces of the government), legal or moral.

And that underlying position is exactly why the statement is offensive. (Not that I'm offended, don't get me wrong.)

Al - yep, Famous Potatoes. Seen it in a fleamarket stall. These days though, states do offer alternatives. Anyways, Famous Potatoes may be said to be merely identifying the state (like The Garden State or The Keystone State) ... Live Free or Die or God Bless America don't, they're purely ideological statements that the state has no business forcing it's citizens to wear. Imagine having to wear a badge on the sleeve of your school uniform at all times that says "God Bless America" (although I wouldn't want to wear a badge saying "Famous Potatoes" either. )

[minionofmidas]

The Constitution does not imply a right to vote. To the contrary: by listing criteria for which you can not be denied the right to vote, it implies that you can be denied that right on other bases.

The federal government arguably has power to establish a right to vote in national elections, but no such power exists with regard to state elections.

The Voting Rights Act is a remedy for race discrimination in voting. It does not create a generic right to vote.

A constitutional setup without a right to vote is not a constitutional setup worth preserving.

[minionofmidas]

It's not just the mention of God, it's the grotesque hybris that should specifically bless one individual country, that is bad about this slogan.