Know Thy Enemy
Even though I'm 2,000 miles away from Illinois, they senate campaign there deserves attention. Democratic State Senator Barack Obama is running for an open U.S. Senate seat against former presidential candidate Alan Keyes. It is the first time ever that two black men are running against each other for a U.S. Senate seat.
Anyway, Keyes has made truly disgusting comment saying Monday that those who believe in a women's constitutionally protected right to choose are not only evil, but also no different from terrorists.
On May 4th, before he was a senate candidate, Keyes said:
"Now, you think it's a coincidence that on Sept. 11th, 2001, we were struck by terrorists an evil that has at its heart the disregard of innocent human life? We who have for several decades killed not thousands but scores of millions of our own children, in disregard of the principle of innocent human life -- I don't think that's a coincidence, I think that's a warning. I don't think that's a coincidence, I think that's a shot across the bow.On Monday, Keyes explained on that statement saying:
"I think that's a way of Providence telling us, "I love you all; I'd like to give you a chance. Wake up! Would you please wake up?"
"What distinguishes the terrorist from the ordinary warrior, is that the terrorist will consciously target innocent human life. What is done in the course of an abortion? . . . Someone consciously targets innocent human life.Keyes's opponent, democrat Barack Obama, responded:
"As I often point out to folks, the evil is the same. And that means, quite frankly, in fighting the war against terror, as I have often put it to audiences, the evil that we fight is but the shadow of the evil that we do."
"I think it's a deeply troubling statement," Obama said. "To suggest that somehow the slaughter of innocent people in New York and in Washington was somehow brought about as a consequence of women exercising their reproductive freedom is not the way most people here in Illinois think."Well put Mr. Obama.
Let's not forget however, that statements along the lines of Alan Keyes's are not new to Republican and conservative leaders. On April 25, as more than a million women were marching on Washington in support of women's rights, key Bush advisor Karen Hughes said:
"I think that after September 11, the American people are valuing life more and we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. President Bush has worked to say, "let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions." And I think those are the kinds of policies the American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing an enemy and, really, the fundamental issue between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life."And president Bush supporter and Republican Party activist Rev. Jerry Falwell said on September 13, 2001:
"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen'."Know Thy Enemy, thy name is "Compassionate Conservatism."
1 Comments:
Nope. It's right-winged, fundamental christianity. Most of the vital central conservatives like John McCain and others don't agree with this kind of policy, and that's the heart of what we need to be fighting.
Vital central policymakers, like Bush the Elder and Clinton, realized that you do have to make some concessions to your base; for Democrats, it's the hard-core liberals (which most conservatives detest) and the hard core conservatives (which all Progressive thinkers detets) that really get out the vote in the primaries, and to some extent, the general election.
The problem is, the right-wing agenda has gotten so many people from its base out to vote, that it has alienated those of us in the middle.
So what do we do? Try and attract more of those "RINOs" to our side by showing them that vital centralism is the best way to push America back in the right direction; toward international co-operation, promoting indiviudal homan rights, and securing the legitimacy of the United Nations. Their values are ours, although they may be a little bit to the right of the political spectrum, but still, it's better to have moderates on our side than right-winged nut jobs.
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