Franglish and the First Amendment

My eldest daughter has been dating a guy from France for the past several months. He’s been here in Marin about a year and has connected with many others who hail from France, as well as Americans they’ve met, so they have a large crowd of friends in their mid- to late-20s, very interested in both cultures.

To a one, they love living in America. They are fascinated with the political process here because it is so different. In France there are a wide range of political parties; Rally for the Republic, Union for a Popular Movement, Union for a French Democracy, Democratic Liberals, the Socialist Party, the Greens, the Left Radicals, the National Front, Communists. It can be very confusing.

Here, we really just have two political parties and that can be equally perplexing, notwithstanding the Tea Party “movement.” The whole notion of Libertarians also gets confusing; this is a minor political party but a major philosophy that basically endorses small government, individual liberty and personal responsibility ... I think.

It is hard to explain to a Frenchman why someone who believes in freedom of choice would therefore, by political platform, believe in out-of-control government entitlements, when there’s no money to pay for them. Why someone who believes marriage is between two people who love each other can’t also cry, “Not one more stimulus – it’s not working!” That Michele Bachmann has some pretty heavy credentials when it comes to budgets but also may have an unusual interest in ludicrous “gay reparative therapy.”

Of course, most everyone is speaking some sort of Franglish during these conversations, so maybe it’s lost in translation. Or maybe we are mixing apples and oranges in an unexplainable way.

Maybe we need to try to adhere to the doctrine of church vs. state, clearly expressed in the First Amendment; firmly separate personal beliefs from government actions on behalf of its people, and freedom of speech and thought from financial accountability. Wasn’t that the intent of the constitution from the get go?

I was raised a Catholic and because it was impossible to obey the rules without hypocrisy, I like many of my kind, became a FAC – a “fallen away Catholic.” If you are a Catholic, you cannot believe that homosexuality is OK (so the priests that actually are, are not) and you can’t believe that sex before marriage is OK (seriously) and I am pretty sure you still can’t use birth control except for the “rhythm method,” which is how every Catholic around my age got here and you can NOT believe in freedom of choice.

Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi both are Catholics and don’t consider themselves FAC’s at all. Both of them went to Rome recently to visit with the Pope and both times the Pope chewed them out big time because they are Democrats and therefore believe in freedom of choice and that is not acceptable. But, it didn’t bother them. They just did their Catholic thing and their Democrat thing and kissed the Pope’s ring and that was that.

I think it’s going to be très difficile to explain that one!