What on earth? How cruel and hateful have we become in this society? The GOP debates have certainly enlightened me.
I haven't been too thrilled with President Obama the last year or so. I believe that in his desire to show he's the bigger man who can compromise, he's given away far too much. Plus, that kind of assumption that the citizens of this country will "get" that you're being the bigger man? Yeah, they just don't. I'm struck by how many uneducated, mean-spirited, un-Christian people there are in this country. I honestly thought that the tea party was just a few total whack jobs. But man, they've gotten the attention of the media (yes, including the "lamestream media" tht they claim only panders to those "liberals"). And the media has given them a tremendous voice.
Why does this appall me? You mean aside from the obvious?
Here's the thing. In the last 2 GOP debates, we've seen audiences applaud and cheer at the fact a governor has put 234 people to death in his 10 year tenure - even those where there was a question of innocence. Why? Because "there's a very thoughtful process in place in Texas for review." And who is he to question the courts when they make a ruling? We'll just avoid any discussion of the unbelievable hypocrisy inherent in that statement, shall we? Because we all know that Perry (and yes, all the other radical right wingers) only believes in the sanctity of the judiciary when it agrees with him.
I thought that was truly awful. But last night? Holy wowza. Do these people even hear what they sound like? Cheering and screaming "YES!" when asked if an uninsured 30 year old man should just be allowed to die because he doesn't have health insurance?
Now, I'm not saying that Paul said that. No, he skirted that by saying that the man made a choice, and he should have taken responsibility and purchased major medical.
Sooooo, let me get this straight. We should let a young man who needs intensive care die because he doesn't have insurance. OK then. Let's buy it for a minute.
How do these same people call themselves pro-life? Because they sure don't feel like the government should pay for helping to keep people alive. And they don't believe that the government should help support those that they've forced to be alive. This, I repeat, is not pro-life.
Unless, of course, it falls in line with their message of the day, which is that a man can't choose to let his persistently vegetative wife die with some dignity.
One question for all these folks: Who was paying for Terri Schiavo's care? You know, the same woman who you tried to pass legislation to protect (in a bill focused only on that one single person?)? Was it their amazing health insurance, purchased on the free market? Was it Michael Schiavo's wonderful "nest egg" that they saved (because they were personally responsible people)? Was it Terri Schiavo's parents? Uh... nope. It was Medicaid. Yes, that nasty entitlement program that we should all be rid of. Once the malpractice settlement ran out, Medicaid picked up the tab. Oh, but it's ok as long as it suits our purposes, which is denying a woman the right to die with dignity.
Now, I'm certain that Ron Paul would have agreed that her care shouldn't be paid for by the government. In fact, in Sept 2007, his answer was no to the following question:
Would you support legislation that would protect the cognitively disabled & vulnerable people from having their food & water taken away?
But in this article from 2005, he argues the pro-life stance. Hello! Hypocritical!
There is one line that stands out to me from his article, however. "Morality is inherent in law, no matter what the secularists might say. But morality is not inherent in politics."
And having said that, let's be honest. The morality discussion in our country has become all about politics. The laws are inherently moral, by treating people fairly and equally. It's the politicians that seek to be immoral under the guise of being pro-life.
Say what you will about Ron Paul (and I will - he's freaking loony!), but he doesn't change his loonytunes views to satisfy anyone. At least he's consistent.
So... my takeaways?
When a governor who is running for president can answer questions like "Do you support gun control?" with the following: "Yeah, I support gun control. Use two hands.", and when that same governor gets applause and cheers for putting possible innocent people to death, and even those who may not have been innocent, to the tune of an average 23.4 per year, and we can cheer the idea of letting a 30 year old man die because he didn't have insurance... it's not just the politics that have become immoral.
It's all of us.
Rick Perry: Use two hands
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