The President's proposed "hate crime" legislation should send a chill down the back of every thinking American. Hatred of innocent people is, of course, destructive and immoral and everyone should be opposed to it. But, not everything that is immoral should be illegal. Like so many things that this President does or wants to do, this proposal will do serious harm. It is a giant step toward Totalitarianism.
In the first place, Bill Clinton is seriously proposing to make it a federal crime to THINK certain thoughts. The federal government will be in the business of punishing those thoughts if it can prove in court that an accused was thinking them. Of course, it will obviously be necessary to carefully explore the accused's thinking. Everything about this idea is utterly alien and completely antithetical to every principle of American culture, tradition, and law. It takes Orwell's 1984 "Thought Police" from the realm of scary science-fiction fantasy to police state reality. It is worth remembering that this is the same President who continually describes those opposed to his policies as being motivated by "hate." It is a very short step from imagining that government should punish politically- incorrect thoughts to believing that government should also punish politically-incorrect speech, just as the former Nazi and Soviet regimes used to do and as the People's Republic of China still does to this day.
In the second place, Clinton's proposal puts the federal government in the position of declaring that a first degree murder committed because the victim belonged to a particular social group or class is somehow worse than the identical first degree murder committed out of personal hatred, greed, lust, or what have you. Why should this be so? Murder is already illegal. So is assault, battery, arson and every other violent manifestation of hate to which this legislation would apply. It is an extravagant expansion of the politically-inspired legal idiocy that treats a violent crime committed by a thug armed with a firearm as though it is somehow worse than the identical violent crime committed by a thug who employed some other weapon. Now, I don't know about you, but if I had to choose between being shot dead, sliced up with a chain saw, or burned alive, the choice would not be difficult to make.
In the third place, creating a class of "hate crimes" will divide the country and enhance the fractures that are already spider-webbing through the political culture. Every inter-racial playground fight will become a job for the federal thought police and an occasion for racial demagogues in all quarters to inflame public passions.
Finally, this proposal is a Trojan horse that will further federalize criminal law. It is another unwarranted and completely unconstitutional effort to expand federal power at the expense of the states.
It is time to buy a lot of stamps, light up the Congressional switchboard, and fill the ether with e-mail and FAXES. We need to drive a stake through the heart of Clinton's "hate crime" legislation now.
Frank Brady