Under Sharia law, mutilating the Koran or any piece of paper with a verse from the Koran is blasphemy. This is a very serious charge. In Pakistan, blasphemy is punishable by death.
At the State of the Union address this week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi engaged in a political stunt that has Trump supporters up in arms. Prominently seated behind the President, once Trump finished his speech, Pelosi, in a manner visible to television audiences, ripped a written copy of the State of the Union Address Trump had handed her before he started speaking, into pieces.
Let me be clear, I was annoyed by Pelosi’s stunt and the lack of civility it showed. Of course, I was equally annoyed at the lack of civility Trump showed when he refused to take Pelosi’s outstretched hand when he arrived at the podium of the House chamber. Indeed, with the behavior of some Democrats during the speech, and the awarding of Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, there were enough embarrassing political stunts to go around.
But Trump supporters are going overboard in their criticism of Pelosi. By ripping her copy of the speech, Trump supporters have claimed that she ripped apart the Tuskegee Airman who was a guest of the President, mourning families, a family reunited with their service member’s father, and others who were mentioned in the speech. Indeed, the outrage expressed by Trump supporters is tantamount to the way Muslims treat someone who has ripped the Koran. Get over yourselves. A copy of the State of the Union Address is not a religious text. It is not some revered artifact that deserves praise in and of itself. It’s a set of papers with words written on them that were read out loud by the President. Let’s not start treating the President as some kind of infalible demigod whose every word must be heeded and venerated. That’s not how democracy works. Indeed, our democracy is protected by our Constitution, which includes a First Amendment that protects freedom of speech, particularly political speech. And that is what Pelosi engaged in, even if it were crude and crass.
Likewise, Trump supporters are now citing 18 U.S.C. § 2071, which criminalizes the mutilation or destruction of an official record of the United States. The problem with this argument is that the copy of the State of the Union Address handed to Pelosi was not an official public record. Pursuant to the Presidential Records Act of 1978, all documents from the White House are filed with the National Archives. The document filed with the National Archives is the official record. Thus, the copy of the speech Trump handed to Pelosi, while it is given to her out of tradition, is really nothing more than a courtesy copy. The law, 18 U.S.C. § 2071, is meant to protect records filed with U.S. courts and the National Archives from destruction, not every copy of a presidential speech printed out, even if signed by the President.
Quite frankly, the belly-aching over Pelosi’s political stunt is nothing more than political showmanship itself. It represents some of what is wrong with U.S. politics today. U.S. politics has become more about the dog and pony show, instead about the substance of policy. Given the fact that Trump routinely insults, bullies and ridicules his political opponents, it’s not like either he or his supporters have room to complain.
Instead of trying to score mere symbolic points, politicians ought to be deliberating substantively what policy is best for the American people. Wasting this much time and effort over silly political stunts does nobody any good and merely perpetuates the deep division we already have among Americans.
By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
