Quick Note on Miss California and the Constitution
I am in a hotel room in North Dakota doing a radio interview for my book. (It’s on a commercial break.) I just wanted to blog this quickly before I forget. Did you hear Miss California’s statement at the press conference where Donald Trump said she could keep her crown?
I don’t have time to dig up the exact words, but she said something along the lines of her uncle (grandfather?) fighting in Korea to defend our freedoms. And that the Constitution gave us freedom of speech, and it was crazy that in America today, people like her could be persecuted for speaking her beliefs.
[UPDATE: Here is the video. My original recollection was off; her grandfather had fought under Patton in World War II. But just watch it for 60 seconds and you’ll see what I mean. She seems to think the Constitution protects the right of someone to say she believes marriage is between a man and a woman, and then not have others criticize her for saying that. No, the Constitution has nothing to do with that, and her grandfather should have taught her better.]
I’m sorry young lady, but your relative didn’t do a good job explaining to you what the Constitution does. It doesn’t put limits on what beauty pageants can ask of their candidates. Just like the Constitution doesn’t protect Don Imus’ “right” to make an ass of himself on the air.
What really stunned me was not that Miss California would play that card, but that “great Americans” and big fans of American history and the Founding Fathers (like Sean Hannity) played the excerpts of her speech without even mentioning, “Of course folks, she’s being a little off here, but you get the idea…”
