For the week of October 21 thru October 27, 1998 |
Puritanical views may come back to haunt GOPCommentary By PAT MURPHY How ironic an Idaho Republican political candidate being subjected to the Puritan litmus test thats become so emblematic of his own political partys drift into "family values" trivia. Yup, a caller to a radio talk show asked GOP congressional candidate Mike Simpson whether hed ever smoked marijuana. He had, Simpson admitted 30 years ago, as a college student. He even inhaled. Whether Simpsons honesty won over the caller, or merely confirmed suspicions that Simpson was blemished because of a youthful pot-puffing experience, isnt important. The callers question confirms the narrow agenda of some voters representative of the holier-than-thou right wing of American politics, which seems otherwise utterly indifferent to a candidates broader qualifications and credentials. The "family values" crowd seems obsessed with a candidates stand on abortion, homosexuality, school prayer, drugs and desecration of the American flag, and little else. International geopolitics, federal budgets, trade treaties, environmental air and water quality controls, technology of new defense weaponry and the myriad of complex issues confronting congressmen seem of no concern to the group that has been dubbed "theo-conservatives" religious conservatives whove effectively seized the heart of the Republican Party. Fully 25 percent of the Republican Partys delegates to the 1996 nominating convention were identified as members of the Christian Coalition. By the 2000 convention, the numbers will have multiplied and final control of the GOP seems inevitable. The ultimate objective of the religious rights "family values" strategists is a cleansing of America by imposing a theocratic form of government with a religious and moral code. Nothing would be exempt from the morals police arts, music, books, film, personal sexual conduct. Everything would be subject to regulation, even private bedroom conduct. Which is one of the curious contradictions of the religious right and its minions in the Senate and House in Washington and local offices of the states and cities. These religious conservatives customarily bristle at the notion of larger, costlier, more intrusive government but then show up on the frontlines with new laws and amendments to the Constitution to enforce their will involving prayer, outlawing abortion, banning homosexuals from the military, criminalizing desecration of Old Glory. Theyre the same voices that denounce language and images in film, rap music and on the Internet as shaping sociopathic misconduct but then deny that their own harsh language about gay Americans or abortion clinics has any influence in shaping violent attitudes toward gays and abortion clinics. Well-meaning foot soldiers in the "family values" crusade blindly see only virtue and an end to sin ahead. But history about religious zealotry teaches otherwise. More people have suffered and died in the name of religion than any other cause. One need only look to todays governments where religion rules to see ghastly evidence of crimes committed in the name of someones God. And after centuries of trying, religious zealots still havent obliterated sin or purged evil from humankind, and insist on imposing their will on the unwilling, no matter what the costs.
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