Burn the Bern!

We've rejoiced that the aged Democrat elites are generating so much fake news about the non-issue of Mr. Trump colluding with the Russians that no other Democrat can get any publicity.  To our way of thinking, the more events that prevent a younger Democrat from becoming well enough known to challenge Mr. Trump, the better.

Unfortunately, this sometimes means that Democrats can misbehave without any attention being paid.  For example, during the Senate hearing for Russell Vought, Mr. Trump's nominee to be deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Bernie Sanders launched a vicious attack on Mr. Vought's religious beliefs.

Mr. Vought had written an article which argued that Wheaton College had the right to terminate a professor whose theological beliefs did not match the college's statement of faith:

Wheaton College, my alma mater, is in the midst of a firestorm over its response to Dr. Larycia Hawkins' controversial comments seeking solidarity with Muslims and her argument that Christians "worship the same God." Wheaton recently commenced termination proceedings with Dr. Hawkins, finding her reaffirmations of the Statement of Faith unsatisfactory.

The article reiterates longstanding orthodox Protestant Christian theology. 

Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned.

This seems to have infuriated Sen. Sanders, although Christianity doesn't get any more orthodox than that.  Since the founding of Christianity some 2,000 years ago, Christians have asserted that believing in Jesus Christ is the only alternative to going to hell when you die.  For all practical purposes, that is the very definition of Christianity, the very name of which accordingly includes the name of Christ.

Yet Mr. Sanders used this entirely unexceptional statement of bog-standard Christian doctrine to challenge Mr. Vought's fitness for office, calling his statement "Islamophobic."  He ended by saying, "This nominee is really not someone who this country is supposed to be about."

Sen. Sanders is of course wrong on the facts - entire books have been written demonstrating the deep Christian beliefs of America's founders.

More to the point, he has ignored the oath he swore to uphold the United States Constitution when he assumed office in the Senate.  Our Constitution flatly prohibits religious tests for public office - which is precisely the unConstitutional measure Sen. Sanders attempted to apply to Mr. Vought.

Indeed, the same sentence which forbids religious tests also requires Senators, Representatives, Judges, and all federal and state executive officers to uphold the Constitution:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

In making religious belief a condition of assuming federal office, Mr. Sanders has clearly violated the Constitution and has broken his vow to uphold it.

Each American public servant, including Mr. Vought, must support the Constitution regardless of his religious faith.  Any official who violates the constitutional rights of any citizen should be held to account, especially if he believed that whatever he did was religiously justified or compelled.  No Senator may exclude Mr. Vought from office because of Mr. Vought's belief that that only followers of Jesus Christ can receive salvation.

Burn the Bern?

This brings up interesting Constitutional possibilities from Article I, Section 5:

Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.

Since 1789, the Senate has expelled only fifteen of its entire membership.  It's not easy to do, but Mr. Sanders' behavior is a transparent, black-letter violation of his oath of office.  It's blatant enough that every American can understand it from a 15-second TV ad recording Mr. Sander's statement and scrolling the text of the Constitution.

What makes this even more interesting is the fact that many Muslim authorities have stated that Islam cannot be reconciled with democracy.  In other words, according to recognized experts of Islam, a devout professing Muslim can't uphold the Constitution while practicing his faith any better than Mr. Sanders does while practicing his of aggressively secular humanistic atheism.

Shouldn't the Senate just Burn the Bern to remind the others we expect them to keep their promises to us - and, even more important, firmly establish the precedent?  The way things are going, we're going to need it.