Is this constant percolating tension between the social conservatives (SC's) and the fiscal conservatives (FC's) within the party a false one? Can one be pro-choice and anti-Roe vs. Wade? Soapie has said in the past abortion should be a states' rights issue though he is personally very much pro-choice but he seems one of the very few fiscal or libertarian conservatives to actually say this. Put it this way I could (though there are alot of other factors involved here) support someone for political office who is pro-choice but anti-Roe and I would say the majority of pro-lifers these days are not purists on the issue. The Human Life Amendment is pie-in-the-sky stuff except for folks like Judie Brown of the American Life League. If Giuliani had adopted this federalist approach even a few years ago he well might have been the GOP standard-bearer instead of McCain by default. I've never understood it, this internecine political rift between the SC's and the FC's when there is so much potential common ground here. Roe was wrong on so many levels that would be a separate blog unto itself, I'd probably have to break it down into 3 threads at least.
FC's do the same thing with Terri Schiavo, it's always the Congress shouldn't have gotten involved but I've talked to a couple of pro-choice people who saw it from other angles. When that case was living news a chef friend of mine whom I worked with at the time first said he wouldn't want to live like that (DUH, who would?) but then framed it as the husband was suspicious (no mention of Congress' involvement) point being can't the FC's look at pro-life issues from any other perspectives? My chef friend though I disagree with his politics (he's a liberal) generally thinks of things the right way, goes through the correct thought processes and I don't see alot of objectivity out there. Again he and I both had a common ground here about why not just let Terri's family take care of her and so you can't tell me there can never be any thoughts that coincide on the life issues between SC's and FC's or even between conservatives and liberals in general.
George Will once concluded that the abortion issue is stale, maybe that's because he prefers it that way. You take any issue under the sun and I can find new hues, other nuances, perspectives, shades of meaning. Maybe the problem is our limited imaginations.
Wouldn't it have been nice to have a normal, patriotic, strong president with American values and perspectives? Instead we got a nutcase that is shaking the baby so hard he may kill it.
ReplyDeleteBut that's what I mean. A "strong president with American values and perspectives" would be reaching, practically stretching across the aisle to the other side as he promised in his campaign and not just doing things to appease his hardcore liberal base. Half the country doesn't even want his version of health-care "reform" but he's gonna try to ram it down our throats anyway, Dr. Obama with his cough syrup he knows what's best for us.
ReplyDeleteYou take any issue under the sun and I can find new hues, other nuances, perspectives, shades of meaning. Maybe the problem is our limited imaginations.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why your my favorite blogger!
Ugh, I hate when people use "your" when it should be "you're" and then I go and do that!!!
ReplyDelete(lol - the word verification is "restore" - I wish I could restore my last posting with the correct grammar!)
Right thinking and correct thought processes, if used in the Schiavo case would force a person to conclude that it wasn't a good example of a classic right-to-die case since we don't know how Terri collapsed in the first place. In most of your personal autonomy to end one's life cases we pretty much know the cause of the person's present situation, in many cases it's a car crash and so if one were to employ pure reason in the Schiavo case it should be ascertained whether or not we have a criminal case here. This is why the purported autopsy done afterwards to partially ascertain whether there was domestic abuse involved made absolutely no sense except apparently to Lee at Hannityland whom I embarrassed. Let's say instead of what we got the coroner concluded criminal wrongdoing you just killed the victim! I never saw the Schiavo case as totally being about Pro-Life/Pro-Choice and neither did my chef friend. I saw it within the larger framework of an investigation and this is where so many on BOTH sides were off the mark. An unusual case like this demands something other than the usual political framework and talking points and so I was sorely disappointed it only came down to a debate about federalism when it was so much more.
ReplyDeleteAs to your first comment Beth I'm flattered and I do go out of my way to be different, to say things others aren't saying or that you hear seldom expressed if at all. I will take the occasional outrageous opinion and will back it up. For these reasons I don't tell anyone else about my blog, if they're clever enough to figure it out on their own great but I feel if I told people I'd be censoring my own blogging, the style and the material and I can't do that. I'd rather be totally honest and if people take offense so be it. As for spelling I'm a real stickler as the most minor errors I correct and only wish there were an EDIT button for comments posted too.
ReplyDelete"Soapie has said in the past abortion should be a states' rights issue though he is personally very much pro-choice but he seems one of the very few fiscal or libertarian conservatives to actually say this."
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't personally consider myself as being Pro-choice. But neither does my position on life limit itself to merely the life of the unborn child. I've always maintained that adults who engage in sexual intercourse of their own volition accept the consequences of said act. Whether said act results in genital herpes, the clap, or pregnancy, you assume those possibilities when you opt to have sexual intercourse.
I've never held that individuals are put on this earth to serve as sacrificial lambs to some cause higher than their own. As such, I see no moral justification for sacrificing one life for the sake of another. And contrary to Beth's assertions, I don't care if it's a week, 9 months, or 25 years. It's not your life to dictate.
I've never been fond of generalities and plattitudes or labels for that matter. Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice....blah!
Let's get into the intracacies of those positions and why a person holds the one they do.
Interesting thoughts as usual soapie.
ReplyDelete