The Litmus Test

[richardf8]

Abortion is called a litmus-test issue for selecting judges and even other politicians. I apply this litmus test myself, and not just because I care about "a woman's right to choose."

Thing is, nine times out of ten a politician's stand on abortion is a solid indicator of their attitude toward the role of government in people's lives and the role of religion in government. It is indeed a better indication of this than of their personal attitudes toward abortion. Consider:

Mario Cuomo (D, NY), Arne Carlson (R, MN), and John Kerry (D, MA) - all of these people share the personal belief that abortion is not good. To call them pro-abortion would be a serious overstatement. However, they all hold that regardless of their personal views on the matter, they will not use the power of Government to turn those views into law.

And that, my friends, is the distinction between the emotional maturity of a statesman and the solipsism of the despot. The ability to recognize that the mere fact that one is in government does not confer upon one the power to make a personally held belief system into the law of the land.

Those who call themselves "Pro-Life" are, in essence, screaming "Give us a King!" This is the election that determines if they will get their wish.

Use your vote wisely, lest it be your last.

Comments

[jesterstear.livejournal.com]

Every time I hear someone claim that Kerry is flip-flopping because he would refuse to use the power of the Presidential office to enforce his religious views on the nation, I want to beat them about the head and shoulders with a haseball bat. Or a crowbar. Or a midgit. Whatever is handy and will hurt.

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

It just boggles me sometimes how many people make intractable political decisions based on a single issue like this. I'm sure there are lots of people who think Bush is a completely incompetent twit but would never vote for Kerry because he is pro-abortion (within your stated limits). I work with a guy who has approximatley that attitued about Bush, but he is an NRA member and a hunter and is totally convinced that if Kerry is elected a squad of Marines will show up at his door to confiscate his guns.

The point I was trying to get to somehow is that this must be some kind of unique thing about America. In the parlimentary democracies, I'm sure they have their extremist twits, but in order to accomplish anything they have to form coalitions to so compromise is part of the process. In our winner-take-all system it's all about grabbing as much as you can when you can and the hell with everything else. It just breeds an all-or-nothing mentality where exreme viewpoints are rewarded - the more extreme the better.

[richardf8]

I work with a guy who has approximatley that attitued about Bush, but he is an NRA member and a hunter and is totally convinced that if Kerry is elected a squad of Marines will show up at his door to confiscate his guns.

Ask him what kind of ammo he plans to use to bag a deer in an oil-field. And he must really like shooting clays, because with Bush's environmental tewardship, there ain't gonna be enough wetlands to foster real ducks.

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

There wouldn't be any point. This is one of those areas where politics mimics religion.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

The only way to allow abortion and be consistent with other values (e.g., not allowing the killing of born infants for the family's benefit) is to consider the fetus subhuman, and I see no way to reach a definite conclusion that it is. I think that calling abortion a woman's right is like calling racial slavery a white's right, saying that those who believe African Americans to be inferior should have the right to treat them so for personal benefit. Get it out of your head that pro-lifers are by definition sexist or even religious. The traditional policy of democracy is that your rights end where another human's begin, so if you consider the fetus human and want it to have a right to life, then you are not practicing tyranny: you're practicing democracy.

(I'm still voting for Kerry.)

[richardf8]

Listen to the rhetoric, and pay attention to the issues that cluster together.

I'm not talking about the ethics of abortion here. The only reason that abortion is selected as an issue by folks like Bush is because of the emotional intensity it generates. It is behind the fog of that emotional intensity that tyranny finds the space in which to grow.

The ethics of abortion seem cut-and-dried to you. And we have already had our discussion on this issue per se But given the nature of the people who are using this issue to leverage power for themselves, you face the very real prospect that by beginning to allow them to legislate their faiths, you will end up finding yourself in a US that regards Transubstatiation as Heresy, and Heresy as a Capital Offense.

Pointing out to me the one feminist, atheist, Pro-Lifer you can find (and I'm sure there are more) does nothing to change the fact that this issue is being used to make an inroads for an agenda that, when all is said and done, has less to do with the sanctity of life than with the consolidation of power. The abortion issue itself is wool being pulled over our eyes.

All that said, I laud your vote for Kerry.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

OK. That's sound enough.