In the weeks since the November election we’re again hearing the same old tired debate about the values issues and the Republican Party. After every election the pro-aborts and the pro-“homosexual rights” crowd in the media and in both political parties begin again to lecture the GOP about how it’d be so much better off if it would just ignore those pesky social issues.
It is ironic that no one wastes time telling the Democrats to stop talking about the social issues. The Democratic Party is never lectured about advocating for abortion and for so-called “homosexual rights.”
To be a good Democrat today is to be willing to fight to the death to allow a woman to cause the death of a baby growing within her body. A good Democrat must also embrace those who have made a religion out of their sex life. In keeping with that status, they want to prevent anyone from discriminating against them because of their choice of sex partners.
Personally, I’d like to see “don’t ask, don’t tell” expanded to all of polite society. Why anyone wants me to know of their sexual preference is beyond me. Again, a guy who wants to boast of his “conquests” (with either gender) should be suspect.
The Republican platform, on the other hand, recognizes that society is impacted when it comes to how people value human life as well as how it treats sexual behavior in the public square.
A few years ago I noted this:
Societies around the world fall on different points of the spectrum – ranging from civil and just – all the way to chaotic and barbaric. There are no guarantees that our nation will maintain its relatively good position on that spectrum.
Civilization is behavior. Everything else is a discussion about which behaviors are conducive or destructive to a healthy social fabric. It’s a simple and unoriginal premise that sexual behavior is one of those that has to be handled in a mature fashion lest it negatively impact society.
It’s a mistake to think that somehow the two big social issues mentioned above are somehow unnecessary distractions or in some way outside the scope of what should be dealt with in the public debate and through public policy.
A couple of comments.
First – it was the pro-aborts and the pro-“homosexual rights” crowd that injected both subjects into modern politics. Had they not sought to overturn prohibitions on abortions the GOP wouldn’t have had to make it an issue.
Had advocates of the pro-homosexual agenda not sought special rights based on their behavior or to achieve a “moral revolution,” the GOP wouldn’t have had to deal with this unpleasant topic either.
Second – we still hear the silly cliché that “you can’t legislate morality.” If abortion is legal that is somebody’s morality legislated. To borrow language from political scientist Will Morrisey, “any law commands that one should or should not act in a certain way” (italics are his), and thus somebody’s view of what is to be preferred (“the good”) is being enacted.
The founders knew morality mattered – I previously posted a few of their quotes on the topic. Here are two:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” — George Washington
“Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams
