Re: Tuesday's elections

John P said:

<<<Where and when do you think this began? I noticed this polarization
in
the middle of the Clinton years, when the Ginrich and the Republicans
first shut down the government. But it may have its genesis earlier. I
wasn't paying as much attention before that.

Do you think Bush has exacerbated it, or tried to, in soem way, dampen
it?

>>>

I think Bush has neither tried to exacerbate it nor dampen it.
He--and other Republicans--have just benefited from it.

Look, in a world where BOTH sides are trying to shove their
parochial point of view down your throat, you'll go with the guy whose
side advocates more of what you believe already.

So when did the polarization start?

In the administration of Lyndon Johnson when the IRS went after
the tax exempt status of a group of Southern private schools that they
claimed were "white only" academies, trying to yank their tax-exempt
status because they discriminated on the basis of race.

Eventually, the courts resolved for the schools--IRS rulings on tax
status had to be content-neutral, but right there, the Religious Right
was born.

Because some of those schools were white only, and some were just
run by small denominations that didn't happen to have much in the way
of black membership, but ALL of them saw the writing on the wall: the
federal government had declared its right to decide what morality was
and to enforce it at the point of a gun if it had to.

Forget freedom of religion, or freedom of association--you only had
those freedoms if you agreed with the powers in Washington. If not,
tough luck.

April said that she would continue to think the Right was going
after her way of life as long as they supported "restrictions" on
"freedom," but as far as the Right is concerned, April and you and I
support lots and lots of restrictions on freedom.

The Constitution say that Congress shall make no law...prohibiting
the free exercise [of religion]?

Forget it. If your religion says that homosexual practice is a
grave sin and no member of your religion can practice it and remain a
member in good standing, you're SOOL, because laws should be passed to
require you to hire active homosexuals to positions in church-run
enterprises on "antidiscrimination" grounds.

Same with abortion and birth control--you don't get to provide
health insurance tha doesn't cover those, even if covering them is
against your religion's doctrines, because your employees "rights" (to
what?) are supposed to come first.

Meaning--YOU have no rights. You only have the right to go along
with what Washington thinks you ought to think.

Most members of the RR are absolutely convinced that liberals and
bureaucrats are trying to make Christianity illegal through the back
door--by branding it a "hate crime" to say that homosexuality is wrong,
for instance.

That's why they fight so hard.

There's only one way to solve this--and that's to let federalism
actually work. It means liberals don't get to tell conservatives that
they have to hire gay people or black people or the disabled in their
PRIVATE enterprises, and conservatives don't get to tell liberals that
their states can't instituted civil unions or gay marriage.

But it's pushing reality to blame the drive to get Washington to
enforce one moral code over another on conservatives. It started with
liberals, and liberals have not given it up.

I say let Roe go and let the states each make their own
decisions. Abolish the Department of Education and let localities go
back to making up their own minds about what to teach their own
children. Withdraw all antidiscrimination law as it applies to private
enterprises and institutions. Let's ALL stop trying to get everybody
to do it our way and admit that we just don't agree.

If we don't do that, we can't keep the country together.

Jane Haddam
http://www.janehaddam.com

.

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