Today it seems liberty is the watchword of the conservative right; meaning liberty or freedom from over-reaching, tyrannical government. Liberty has taken on an economic, free enterprise meaning not a legal one.
Conservatives would have you believe that big government has crushed individual liberty, a wedge if you will between your natural rights to "life, LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness" to pursue business interests unfettered by government regulation.
And, of course they conveniently forget the Preamble to the Constitution: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." (note the words...form, establish, provide, promote, secure).
Government is a compact between us all, and under the control of "The People", does take an active and far-reaching role in making the conditions through law for liberty.
And that liberty, we now have established through a Civil War and the Civil Rights struggle, is not just for white people, but for ALL!
The Constitution was not written to create a government that intrudes on individual liberty, but works to provide the blessings of liberty. Without a government of the People, liberty doesn't have a chance. Monarchies cannot provide liberty, aristocracies cannot, plutocracies can't, fascism sure as heck can't...
Basic constitutional law provides that we are "a nation of laws and not of men."
Government in the United States has "checks and balances" throughout its constitutional and even tort law that makes it extremely difficult to infringe on individual liberty.
This is different in criminal law, where the rights of the public to "the general welfare" trumps rampant individual liberty....we lock criminals up. The concept of "clear and present danger" is integral to this decision that sometimes government must act to protect the people from themselves. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, to put a limit on government's power to do this for good reason; witness the Salem Witch Trials.
The Komen flare-up recently, and the reaction to it are instructive. The conservatives hate Planned Parenthood, a non-governmental organization, that works with women on contraceptive, birth control, abortion counseling not financial support, and a whole host of issues dealing with reproductive issues.
Yes, Planned Parenthood has been painted for some reason with a "liberal" brush. But this is for a reason, that cuts to the heart of our liberty.
The Catholic Church, contrary to the vast majority of Protestants, has forever been against artificial contraception. They of course are also adamantly opposed to abortion in any form.
The Catholic Church is pre-eminent in developing nations, especially in Hispanic regions. For years, Mexico for example, has "enjoyed" a high birth rate because the Catholic Church prevents its members from using contraceptives.
And therein lies the point, that deeply affects the recent Komen Foundation flareup, where a anti-breast cancer organization was dragged into the abortion debate by some anti-abortion advocates.
When the Constitution was written the Catholic and Anglican Church were still embroiled in a war for souls. Open warfare had occurred, thousands had been jailed and executed, (Mary Tutor etc) all because church controlled governments were being used to enforce a secular belief.
That is one big reason why the Puritans fled England. Government was deeply involved in thought control, physical control, and there was no liberty. Theocracies were attempting actual thought control...the ultimate Big Brother.
Today, the Catholic Church, and fundamentalists have leaped into the fray, claiming that the Affordable Health Care Act encourages contraception and by implication; abortion.
This has the Catholic hierarchy up in arms, and according to conservatives anyway, another excuse for opposing the Affordable Care Act.
One is suspicious of this, since it seems conservatives are making up a lot to oppose the Affordable Care Act; read, insurance companies behind the mask of conservatives are against it. Behind every oppositional argument to the Affordable Care Act you can find the Insurance Industry...every one!
Anyway, the Komen Foundation gets dragged into this, and for a short time, stops its funds to Planned Parenthood, which could lead to thousands of poor women not getting breast cancer screening.
This evidently has been reversed after a huge public outcry. But, behind the immediate is the more dangerous situation that Catholic and Fundamentalist leaders are using their beliefs about contraception and morality, to intrude into the Affordable Care Act, and ultimately our liberty.
Choice; ie, liberty is the issue.
What right does the Catholic Church or Fundamentalists have telling a person what to do regarding contraception (or abortion for that matter)? And what right do they have to move that telling into pushing for legal prohibitions? Planned Parenthood does not tell people what to do, it provides education so people can make a choice. The churches are telling people they will rot in hell if they chose abortion or contraception; and therein lies the rub.
What more fundamental a liberty than over your own body? What more fundamental liberty that frankly whether you sleep with somebody or not (male of female for that matter).
And who really knows what God wants?
There are big reasons, huge "higher law" reasons, why liberty is in the Constitution. There are big reasons why the secular and the spiritual need to be separated as much as possible. The Komen controversy proves that yet again.
I am always bothered by Fox News and how they embellish every story that accuses the bad government of infringing in Christian belief, ranging from taking down the 10 Commandments from a County Courthouse, to school officials not allowing prayer at a Commencement. It sometimes dominates the Fox "fair and balanced" news cycle.
And fundamentalists wail...and the Catholics rally...and liberty is in danger.
And each time we take another step closer to King Henry the Eighth.
The threat, my conservative friends, to liberty in this country is NOT from government, it is from ourselves; from those among us who think they know what is best for us morally and spiritually.
Laws not men should govern...and Laws not men who think they know God's Will should govern.
Keep the church out of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment