The Religious Right – Corrupting Republican PrinciplesThere’ll be a crowd in Orlando this next week all sucking up to Robertson, Falwell, and Dobson. McCain, Romney, Brownback, and Huckabee will be among the obsequious aspirants who hope to prove their “conservative” credentials. I respect Rudy Giuliani for not stooping to this sycophantic farce. What does any of this have to do with traditional conservatism? What happened to a government that keeps its distance and respects the individual to make his own choices? Whatever became of the Republican mantra of smaller government and states’ rights? Is this the Party that professes to respect individual accountability and promote personal liberty? Those principles sound hollow in a Party that has grown bureaucracy with No Child Left Behind, the Real ID Act, and the uber-Department of Homeland Security. This “less intrusive” administration has tapped phones without warrants and banned internet gambling. They would rewrite the Constitution to define religious rites to supersede civil relationships, protect the flag from arsonists, and ignore the principles of habeas corpus when dealing with infidels. What about these candidates as they kowtow before the Grand Pooh-Bahs of the Religious Right? McCain, who once called Falwell an “agent of intolerance,” is now Falwell’s favorite; he’ll say whatever his audience wants to hear. Romney will try to explain his flip-flop stand on abortion. Brownback is at least consistent in his crusade to legislate what a woman does with her uterus; he’s been at it for years. Huckabee? He wants a nation with a $9 trillion debt to provide music and art instruction via federal mandate – a fine curriculum option, but an issue constitutionally reserved for state jurisdiction. My gripe? Why can’t the Republican Party stick to the basics? The Constitution calls for relatively few things from the federal government, and the 10th amendment reserves the rest for the states or the people. The Bill of Rights should keep the government off our phone lines and protect us from oppressive do-gooders. The Republican Party has long suggested that “the government that governs best governs least.” Let’s see the Party get behind the notion that “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution” is adequate. Nothing less is acceptable, nothing more is needed. Michael Previous: Dinner with the Oligarchs -- Next: Iraq Comment from John R.: I’m against the REAL ID Act, ever-present government, and thinking in stereotypes and charicatures. One of the easiest thing to do it whip on the “religious right.” Identifying a group of people by a few public figures is not being thorough or thoughtful. Most conservative Christians I know wish we would simply live up to our Constitutional ideals. John R. Posted by John R. Feb 15, 05:18 AM # |
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