I think that most Americans instinctually understand that theocracy is evil. More than 200 years of religious freedom seems to have seeped into our basic understanding of life, and the areas of it in which government must not tread.
I think also though that great numbers of Americans fear that the Republican Party is seeking to create a theocracy right here in the United States. I don’t think that is true for the party as a whole, but I do think that the fears are justified, because certainly a large segment of the party, the fundamentalist social conservatives, are trying to do just that. They are trying to create an American theocracy, and they see the Republican Party, and their power within it, as the vehicle in which to do so.
Anti-gay
Anti-gay marriage
Anti-abortion
Anti-pornography
Anti-death with dignity
Anti-sex education
Pro-prayer in schools
Pro-taxpayer funded faith based social programs
Pro-taxpayer funded private schools
Pro-abstinence education
Pro-F.C.C. airwaves regulation
This is their platform, a platform they have been increasingly successful in getting the Republican Party as a whole to adopt. Unfortunately for Republican moderates, traditional conservatives, libertarians, and economic conservatives it also is a platform that spells doom for our party at the ballot box. Most Americans just don’t agree with it. More importantly, most Americans are afraid of such a platform, and what it would mean for our nation. Americans fear theocracy, and are right to do so.
In this time of party rebuilding Republicans need to think long and hard about these issues. We need to decide if our party is to stand for smaller, smarter, more efficient, and limited government, or if it is to stand for bloated theocracy. Government ala Leviticus, or government ala Jefferson.
I stand with the latter. I believe that the overwhelming number of Americans do as well. I hope that the rest of my party wakes up soon.
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2 comments:
Jefferson, yes. And maybe a little John Stuart Mill — "That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise."
If you haven't read his "On Liberty" I can highly recommend it. It's available free online even:
http://www.bartleby.com/130/index.html
JB,
Thank you for the quote, that is terrific.
I have, I believe Mr. Mill somewhere in my rather overgrown book collection. I that that I'll have to dig him out.
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