Senator Danforth Smartens Up

The other day in the New York Times, a great op ed piece was written by John C. Danforth, a former U.S. senator from Missouri, and ambassador to the U.N. Typically I would strongly disagree with almost every point this man makes politically, but his piece caught my eye the other day because he ended up bitch-slapping his own party, especially the 25% that call themselves the Religious Right conservatives.
A former Republican Senator from the midwest breaking ranks with the Republicrap norm is certainly interesting, but isn't exactly news that would trump Michael Jackson arriving to court in his P.J's. The most politically gasping aspect of his article, however, comes to the forefront once you realize his background: Danforth is an ordained minister, and his complaint is that his party is catering to religious conservatives. Roll that in your Phillies Blunt and puff it.

I'm guessing 99% of the conservatives who might be visiting this site would rather wipe their ass with the New York Times than read it, given that it's a super-pink Commie, boys kissing-endorsing liberal rag who wants all of our troops to be beheaded immediately (maybe that's why it actually supported the invasion of Iraq before we went in), so I've decided to paste selected paragraphs from the article itself for your reading pleasure. If you need to clean feces off your screen after reading it, that's your problem.

"By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. The elements of this transformation have included advocacy of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposition to stem cell research involving both frozen embryos and human cells in petri dishes, and the extraordinary effort to keep Terri Schiavo hooked up to a feeding tube."

I'm guessing he's singling out the erosion of the popular Republican philosophy "less government, more states rights," by stating this.

"Standing alone, each of these initiatives has its advocates, within the Republican Party and beyond. But the distinct elements do not stand alone. Rather they are parts of a larger package, an agenda of positions common to conservative Christians and the dominant wing of the Republican Party."

Actually John, beyond the Republican party there isn't much advocation for any of this bullshit. The Green party is disgusted. The Libertarians are disgusted, and even the Nazi Reform party has raised a shaved brow.

"High-profile Republican efforts to prolong the life of Ms. Schiavo, including departures from Republican principles like approving Congressional involvement in private decisions and empowering a federal court to overrule a state court, can rightfully be interpreted as yielding to the pressure of religious power blocs."

Here's the states' rights argument. it's the core of Republican principles, although progressives personally don't care about states rights. That philosophy was used as a battlecry for racism, sex discrimination, and anything else that was obnoxious that the South tried to get away with for years. I point you to public school integration in the middle of the century to get some examples of this. Progressives believe that equality, justice, and advancement of the human race is the same in Texas as it is in Maine. We believe what's right is right, period.

"It is not evident to many of us that cells in a petri dish are equivalent to identifiable people suffering from terrible diseases. I am and have always been pro-life. But the only explanation for legislators comparing cells in a petri dish to babies in the womb is the extension of religious doctrine into statutory law."

I beg to differ - my grandmother, suffering from the first stages of Alzheimers has no right to look to science for help if it's going to ruin the chance of some discarded jack-off & egg batter to get thrown away in a medical bag and sent to the hazardous waste dump. Sorry Grandma but , Juggs Magazine byproduct has as much of a right to life as you do.

"But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed this shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives. As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around."

Again, keep in mind, this is coming from an ordained minister. He forgot to mention the religious influence on lack of birth control, lack of sex education, AIDS here and around the world, on population density issues, on the death penalty, on faith based initiatives that put pastor's in charge of your mental health rather than mental health professionals, and a huge host of other problems we face by not killing the Christian conservatives immediately .

"The historic principles of the Republican Party offer America its best hope for a prosperous and secure future. Our current fixation on a religious agenda has turned us in the wrong direction. It is time for Republicans to rediscover our roots."

Well written John. This is some of the only common sense I've heard from your side of the isle since Rush Limbaugh thanked the ACLU for defending his drug-abusing right to privacy. Oh, wait...nevermind.