In the Washington Post this morning, Richard Cohen argues that most people are under a spell, because they believe in things he thinks are either untrue or irrational — the Constitution, for one:
This fatuous infatuation with the Constitution, particularly the 10th Amendment, is clearly the work of witches, wiccans and wackos. It has nothing to do with America’s real problems and, if taken too seriously, would cause an economic and political calamity. The Constitution is a wonderful document, quite miraculous actually, but only because it has been wisely adapted to changing times. To adhere to the very word of its every clause hardly is respectful to the Founding Fathers. They were revolutionaries who embraced change. That’s how we got here.
I agree, the Constitution should adapt and change: Let’s amend it to repeal the 16th Amendment and to cap overall government spending at 15 percent of GDP!
As for the American people, well:
The unseen effects of witchcraft are clearly the reason about one-fifth of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. In fact, as time goes by, more and more people subscribe to this belief — a phenomenon so at odds with logic or rational thinking that the explanation has to lie in the darkest of arts — witchcraft and voodoo. (The GOP does the voodoo that you do so well.) Many other Americans think Obama was not born in the United States but abroad, in Indonesia or Kenya or even Hawaii, which unknown to a lot of people is an American state.
I wonder whether he thinks that the millions of Americans who voted for Obama believing that things would get better and that change was coming were also under a spell.
Then there’s Newt Gingrich:
Only a spell also can explain how Newt Gingrich, possibly a presidential candidate, can attribute the politics of Barack Obama to “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior.”
Far from defending Gingrich, I wonder whether Cohen thinks that Vice President Biden was also under a spell when, on the campaign trail, he said about candidate Obama, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” or when he said in June 2006, “In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian-Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”
I guess witchcraft is in the eye of the beholder. The whole thing is here.