It has been said by some that slavery is a sin for which America will always pay. The reasons for this obviously stem from the racial problems, inner city crime, and other social ills we continue to face. As bad as those problems might be, they pale in comparison with the problems caused by the legalization of abortion and the polarization of political thought that came with it. Only in a world where Bush can claim to be pro-life can he get Christians to back his full-scale war in Iraq. Only in that same world where Bill Clinton is pro-abortion can those same Christians denounce his much smaller scale wars in the Balkans. Because of the inherent emotion tied with abortion, it becomes impossible to see the faults or merits of anyone who disagrees with one's own personal stance on this one contentious issue. In a sense, one's abortion stance becomes the only thing that needs to be known about a person, or his political viewpoint. This is totally understandable. For instance, it is difficult for me to see how I could agree with someone's ideas on health care when they hold to the belief that plunging a needle into the base of an unborn child's skull should be legal. In addition to the loss of life that has come as a result of Roe versus Wade, there has been a loss of critical thinking about other issues. The problems that America faces today are great, but dealing with them becomes nearly impossible because the answers are all too often obscured by the passions that surround abortion.
E. F. Schumacher was an English economist, author, magazine editor, and political commentator. One of his most famous works was Small is Beautiful, which among other things, discusses man's need to take pride in his work. According to Schumacher, this becomes impossible when one works inside a cubicle, where the finished product is never even seen. He was once asked for some advice on what to do in light of the sad state of the world. His reply was simple: "I can't speak for others, but my own suggestion would be to plant a tree." Schumacher was no liberal, but such a statement would fall on deaf ears if heard by today's neo-conservatives. Praise would obviously come from the tree hugging members of the left. The question then becomes, "why don't members of the right care about trees?" Again, abortion rears its ugly head because for a great many, it becomes difficult to be concerned over the life of tree, when the life of an unborn child can be snuffed out without so much as parental consent. In other words, all other issues pale in comparison. This quite naturally lends itself to apathy and eventually allows for politicians to do whatever is politically expedient, so long as it is in line with their particular party's view on abortion.
One can easily see the power of the abortion issue by observing the legislative acts of those politicians supposedly in the pro-life camp. On Dec 13th, 2003, President Bush signed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which basically encompassed Patriot Act II. Just a month before, he had signed into law the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. The timing of these acts was interesting, logical, and quite orchestrated. By throwing the pro-life groups a bone in November, he ensures no resistance to legislation in December that no friend of life and liberty should have accepted. Just a week before the stealthy passage of the Patriot Act, he had also managed to sign the Medicare reform bill that revamped prescription drug coverage. Quite naturally, pro-life groups and the religious right kept quite when the Medicaid reform cost of $400 billion was later acknowledged to be closer to $600 billion. Pro-life groups have become so inured to the social misgivings of the left, that they automatically set themselves up to take whatever scraps may come from the supposed right.
In order to be "fair and balanced," it would make sense to examine the legislative two-step as conducted by the democrats. However, this proves pointless because no song and dance is required by Clinton & Co. as the liberal agenda needs no poking or prodding in order to be advanced. There need not be any watchdog groups to keep the issues of gay marriage, social outreach programs, or government aggrandizement from being advanced. Sure, as president, Clinton backed away from his support for openly gay service members, but only once his generals begged and pleaded with him that the military could not handle it at the time. Eventually, "don't ask, don't tell" will fall away and it will cease to be an issue, as the liberal agenda is a prevailing current that modern conservatism only seeks to slow, as opposed to redirecting. As long as "planting a tree," is seen as the domain of the left, there can be no real hope for conservatism. Simply acting as a speed bump for liberal thought is not an ideology. Unfortunately, too many well meaning Christians seem to be content with that role.
Since 1973, legalized abortions have claimed the lives of over 44 million babies in America. In its wake, Roe versus Wade also killed legitimate political discourse in this country. I say this in good faith, admitting to the fact that there are ideas on the left that are at least worth my listening too. The only problem is, I usually can't hear them over the sound of those 44 million crying babies. In short, who has time for trees when babies are being killed at the cyclic rate? Come November, George Bush can count on roughly 30 million members of the religious right to vote for him. Whether these people see him as the lesser of two evils, or the answer to their prayers, I do not claim to know. What I do know, is that until abortion joins slavery as part of our country's past, it will be impossible to forge a worthwhile future.
July 6, 2004
John Schroder [send him mail] is a graduate of the Naval Academy and a former Marine infantry officer. Having resigned his commission, he is to begin doctoral work in political science this fall at Louisiana State.
