Thursday, March 31, 2005
Death of Conservatism
Another Death Possible Today
With President Bush preparing to address the nation, there is a strong likelihood that we could see another passing today. Of course this is a passing in the metaphorical sense, the end of the Republican idea of limited government. To their credit, both the President and Governor went the extra mile for Ms. Schiavo (to the extent, in my opinion, that it denigrated their repeated calls to protect marriage..) but for the most part resisted pressure from the far right to act beyond the scope of the law and seize Ms. Schiavo. It remains to be seen to what extent the GOP will capitalize on this tragedy to 1) further attack the independence of the judiciary and 2) put forth far reaching proposals to grant the state and federal government power over personal decisions like this in the future.
Good can still come out of this, but politics is a great mitigator of ends that are both reasonable and just.
With President Bush preparing to address the nation, there is a strong likelihood that we could see another passing today. Of course this is a passing in the metaphorical sense, the end of the Republican idea of limited government. To their credit, both the President and Governor went the extra mile for Ms. Schiavo (to the extent, in my opinion, that it denigrated their repeated calls to protect marriage..) but for the most part resisted pressure from the far right to act beyond the scope of the law and seize Ms. Schiavo. It remains to be seen to what extent the GOP will capitalize on this tragedy to 1) further attack the independence of the judiciary and 2) put forth far reaching proposals to grant the state and federal government power over personal decisions like this in the future.
Good can still come out of this, but politics is a great mitigator of ends that are both reasonable and just.
