In Praise of a Polarized Politics

The Catholic Thing ^ | 27 March 2012 | Hadley Arkes

[AncientAirs]

The final inversion has been seen now in the last few weeks: The Obama White House has sought to inject the issue of contraception, as it will inject later the issue of gay rights, precisely because the Republicans are so evidently averse to talking about them. And in their backing away, the Republicans have failed to cultivate any art or confidence in arguing these issues.

...

The malady he [Jeffrey Bell] sees at work is the falling away, in America and Europe, from the moral teaching of the Declaration of Independence. As he reminds us, the Declaration did not derive “rights” from the political community. Those rights that governments were meant to secure were drawn rather from “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”

[AncientAirs]

Jeffrey Bell was one of the pioneers in the movement for “supply-side” economics, holding up that banner in a run for the Senate in the 1970s, and becoming later an adviser to Ronald Reagan. He has also become one of the most astute observers in our politics, and a serious voice now in Catholic circles.

[ALPAPilot]

Thanks for posting. Hadley Arkes is one of America’s best defenders of natural law, natural rights, and the Declaration of Independence.

[Monorprise]

He is probably right we can’t abandon the bread and butter social issues particularly at the State level.

These issues like the issue of life for the unborn are in fact very much political issues central to the very propose of the secular state, as well as the religious state.

Contrary to popular believe there is no and should not necessarily be a separation between the State level government and the religious convictions of its majority. The 1st amendment to the FEDERAL Constitution specifically spells out the name Congress, not Virginia, not South Carolina, Not Georgia, not Massachusetts, or New York. Religious is Not and should not be banished from public life nor public law, but instead is the very core from which we draw our believes. If we are to educate our young we must take care to educate them in the ways of faith for what good is the well-being of their bodies if their souls are allowed to rot?