Point: The End of Freedom?
I start the first post of the new year by thinking about the future. Specifically, the future of American politics. Looking on from a left-leaning perch, I am of the opinion that the policies of this country will get worse before they gets better. With a Republican-led government, we will see the deficit get larger, the mystery of Medicare get more muddled, and church and state become closer than they already are.
For today's purposes, I've chosen to focus on something more important; the disassembling of our government. In the January 5th issue of Newsweek, an article titled "Mister Right" profiles Sen. Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania. Santorum is a political wiz kid, having won a seat to Congress at age 32, and to Senate at age 36.
According to Howard Fineman, who wrote "Mister Right", Santorum won his campaigns largely by recruiting right-wing activists to fight the ground war. Fineman wrote that Santorum is "close to the White House", and that he is "the point man for hot-button issues ranging from Social Security."
In that article, Santorum is quoted as saying that evolution "should be taught in public schools, but only as a still controversial scientific theory that 'has holes'."
Of course this makes a great deal of sense to everyone in the U.S. While we're at it, we should tell the kids that the Revolutionary War may or may not have included Paul Revere, FDR plagiarized the New Deal, and that 9/11 was caused due to pilot error. We should also clean up the whole Nixon thing; "Yes, Danny, Watergate is a slide at the Magic Kingdom".
If you're a Democrat, you're already pissed off. If you're a Republican, you're rubbing it in to the Democrat I just mentioned because you voted for these people, AND you have a mandate for the next four years. But like all right-wing political agendas, it gets far worse. Senator Santorum goes on to say that "there is no constitutionally based right to privacy...It is a phony legal concoction by liberal judges."
WHAT? Did 2005 bring Americans a monarchy? I knew I should have stayed up this year. After Senator "Reverse and Ban" gets done with our laws, the list of acceptable activities will start and end with going to church. Good thing that Santorum is the third-ranking Republican in a majority of 55 members!
Santorum went on to suggest entirely different laws than our own by saying that he favors each state having the power to legislate on their own, even if that meant that a state banned contraception or premarital sex.
Maybe I'm completely wrong about what we're trying to do here, but I was under the impression that Americans are trying to unite the country, not divide it. I guess I also thought that by having the fifty states make up one country, we would create a land where the sum far outweighed the parts. I certainly got that feeling on September 11, 2001. I have absolutely no idea why we would break up our laws based on the state you lived in. The crazy part is that I bet some states would do this; Would Utah, with its largely Mormon population, make premarital sex a crime? Would Louisiana, a state with a high level of drinking, revert to prohibition? Is this really what the country wanted when they re-elected President Bush?
We are in very dangerous waters when we start to make new laws and repeal existing others based on a small portion of the population. This country is built on the foundation of freedom; whether it's freedom of speech, choice, or action. To take away rights from citizens is a sure fire way to start a country's downfall. Moderate Republicans must aid Democrats on every level to fight this war and save the ideals that the United States were built on.
If we fail, we will be responsible for imploding the greatest nation of all time. I can't live with that.
Can you?
paul.
For today's purposes, I've chosen to focus on something more important; the disassembling of our government. In the January 5th issue of Newsweek, an article titled "Mister Right" profiles Sen. Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania. Santorum is a political wiz kid, having won a seat to Congress at age 32, and to Senate at age 36.
According to Howard Fineman, who wrote "Mister Right", Santorum won his campaigns largely by recruiting right-wing activists to fight the ground war. Fineman wrote that Santorum is "close to the White House", and that he is "the point man for hot-button issues ranging from Social Security."
In that article, Santorum is quoted as saying that evolution "should be taught in public schools, but only as a still controversial scientific theory that 'has holes'."
Of course this makes a great deal of sense to everyone in the U.S. While we're at it, we should tell the kids that the Revolutionary War may or may not have included Paul Revere, FDR plagiarized the New Deal, and that 9/11 was caused due to pilot error. We should also clean up the whole Nixon thing; "Yes, Danny, Watergate is a slide at the Magic Kingdom".
If you're a Democrat, you're already pissed off. If you're a Republican, you're rubbing it in to the Democrat I just mentioned because you voted for these people, AND you have a mandate for the next four years. But like all right-wing political agendas, it gets far worse. Senator Santorum goes on to say that "there is no constitutionally based right to privacy...It is a phony legal concoction by liberal judges."
WHAT? Did 2005 bring Americans a monarchy? I knew I should have stayed up this year. After Senator "Reverse and Ban" gets done with our laws, the list of acceptable activities will start and end with going to church. Good thing that Santorum is the third-ranking Republican in a majority of 55 members!
Santorum went on to suggest entirely different laws than our own by saying that he favors each state having the power to legislate on their own, even if that meant that a state banned contraception or premarital sex.
Maybe I'm completely wrong about what we're trying to do here, but I was under the impression that Americans are trying to unite the country, not divide it. I guess I also thought that by having the fifty states make up one country, we would create a land where the sum far outweighed the parts. I certainly got that feeling on September 11, 2001. I have absolutely no idea why we would break up our laws based on the state you lived in. The crazy part is that I bet some states would do this; Would Utah, with its largely Mormon population, make premarital sex a crime? Would Louisiana, a state with a high level of drinking, revert to prohibition? Is this really what the country wanted when they re-elected President Bush?
We are in very dangerous waters when we start to make new laws and repeal existing others based on a small portion of the population. This country is built on the foundation of freedom; whether it's freedom of speech, choice, or action. To take away rights from citizens is a sure fire way to start a country's downfall. Moderate Republicans must aid Democrats on every level to fight this war and save the ideals that the United States were built on.
If we fail, we will be responsible for imploding the greatest nation of all time. I can't live with that.
Can you?
paul.
posted by paul at 3:16 PM
1 Comments:
a fundamental flaw in democracy as idetified by Tocqueville is the tyranny of the majority. establishing strong state goverments and a weak federal government was part of the check and balance system that the founders of our country spent so much time on when trying to address that flaw. better that the mormons outlaw premarital sex in utah than in all of the U.S. at least then we could have a choice with regard to which laws we wanted to live under. we would probably have more influence with regard to the laws that govern our daily lives that way too.
you say, "We are in very dangerous waters when we start to make new laws and repeal existing others based on a small portion of the population." i think that this is actually the existing system. i believe what the senator proposes is actually trying to make sure that laws based on the needs or beliefs of a small protion of the population are applied only to that small portion and that the rest of us will actually end up with more freedom.
i think it is important to separate mr santorum's political beliefs with his personal beilefs. our country was founded by extreamist who were exiled from the status quo in europe and they formed a system by which you could basically do whatever you wanted as long as you didn't force your ideas on others. i think mr santorum's policies while not providing a total reversion to our original system at least takes a step in that direction. think about it this way... currently if you don't like the federal goverments policies or laws what can you do? move to canada? run a national campaing to change the law? at least under mr santorum's america you could just move to new hapshire or run a local grassroots campaign.
for the record I personally don't believe that there is any place for government intervention in peoples personal lives no matter what the situation.
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