Text 7357, 192 rader
Skriven 2008-08-26 02:52:00 av Bob Klahn (1:124/311)
Ärende: Dumbpublicans
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 TR> Jonah Goldberg on Barack Obama on National Review Online

 TR> August 20, 2008, 0:00 a.m.

 TR> Good and Evil and Obama
 TR> A meaningless wrestle.

 TR> By Jonah Goldberg

 As I type this I am listening to the C-Span recording of the
 interviews. Which they were, interviews, not a debate.

 TR> In the wake of the fascinating forum hosted by Pastor Rick
 TR> Warren at his Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif.,
 TR> everyone is focusingon the contrasts between presidential
 TR> candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. More interesting
 TR> are the contrasts between the intellectual-theologian Obama
 TR> and the political Obama.

 Most interesting is that neither candidate pointed out that
 seperation of church and state is the rule in this country.

 TR> "Does evil exist?" Warren asked Obama. "And if it does, do
 TR> we ignore it, do we negotiate with it, do we contain it, or
 TR> do we defeat it?"

 To which the correct answer is..."Yes"!

 TR> Obama the would-be moral philosopher replied, accurately,
 TR> that evil is everywhere, in Darfur, in our streets, in our
 TR> own hearts. We cannot "erase evil from the world. That is
 TR> God's task. But we can be soldiers in that process, and we
 TR> can confront (evil) when we see it." (Imagine if President
 TR> Bush called himself a soldier of God in the battle against
 TR> evil.)

 If Bush did the hypocrisy would be overwhelming. As it is, I
 find that wording disturbing from any candidate. That is as a
 candidate.

 In this case the question was asked as a plain question of his
 view of the world. This was in the worldview segment of the
 program. In that context, his answer was perfectly reasonable.

 TR> When asked what America’s greatest moral failing was,
 TR> theological Obama said it was our collective failure to
 TR> "abide by that basic precept in (the Book of) Matthew that
 TR> whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for
 TR> me."

 Sounds good to me.

 TR> For Obama the politician, such scriptural quotations often
 TR> serve as an all-inclusive writ to impose his religious
 TR> views on others when it comes to fighting poverty, global
 TR> warming, racism, etc.

 That last part applies much more to the religious right.

 If any of you actually heard what he said, you know Goldberg's
 interpretation was absolute bull. In fact, the congregation gave
 him a round of applause when he gave the response above. And
 Obama expanded on it to explain how that applies to a range of
 problems this country faces. Which you would not know if you
 didn't watch the program, and relied on Goldberg's writeup.

 Above all, you should note how Obama said we need to have
 humility in the confrontation of evil, as all too often evil is
 done in the name of confronting evil.

 He didn't say it, or even appear to be thinking it, but Iraq is
 most clearly an example.

 TR> But when the question turns to
 TR> abortion, political Obama insists on a policy of moral
 TR> agnosticism and political laissez-faire. Asked directly
 TR> when life begins as a legal matter, he punted, saying the
 TR> answer was "above my pay grade."

 The question was not when does life begin, but when does a baby
 aquire human rights. Not even close to the same thing. He didn't
 punt, he gave it a well thought out response. Goldberg just
 doesn't do well reasoned very well.

 What he said was, if he was to answer that question specifically
 that is above his pay grade. And that is true, it is above
 everyone's pay grade. All you can say is when you would grant
 them human rights, not when there is any inherent aquisition of
 human rights. Unless you have a hotline to God that is.

 As a pro-life democrat I have reached the conclusion that human
 life begins at conception. My believing that doesn't make it so,
 that makes it the basis on which I work.

 TR> Obama, commendably, told Warren that he wants to reduce the
 TR> number of abortions. After all, he observed gravely, "we've
 TR> had a president who is opposed to abortions over the last
 TR> eight years, and abortions have not gone down."
 TR> Unfortunately, Obama wasn't telling the truth. The abortion
 TR> rate is the lowest it's been since 1974, partly because of
 TR> pro-life policies under Bush, but also thanks to those
 TR> implemented at the state level since the 1990s.

 I doubt that any pro-life policies adopted under Bush reduced
 the abortion rate noticably. And I esp suspect the abortion rate
 would be even lower had a truly pro-life president taken office.

 However, the worst you can say is, Obama was wrong, by just a
 bit. Whereas the fact that Goldberg found his primary point to
 dispute in that is a quibble over the statistics indicates Obama
 gave quite a good answer to that.

 TR> At Saddleback, Obama offered the ritualistic support for
 TR> Roe v. Wade expected of all Democratic politicians, "not
 TR> because I'm pro-abortion," but because women "wrestle with
 TR> these things in profound ways."

 Which he stated quite well, and is a reasoned response.

 TR> This is surely true in many instances. But political Obama
 TR> won't explain why "wrestling" with a serious moral question
 TR> is an adequate substitute for deciding it correctly. People

 When Goldberg has the devine writ to say what is correct he will
 have something to say on the subject. Until then, wrestling with
 a moral question is something you should do.

 TR> wrestle with all sorts of moral quandaries in "profound
 TR> ways." Many slave owners wrestled with whether they should
 TR> free their slaves, but that did not obviate the need for
 TR> the Emancipation Proclamation.

 A nice diversion. Too bad it's more a trivialization of the
 issue.

 TR> Alas, when it comes to abortion, it's probably silly to
 TR> expect anything but rote fealty to ideological pieties from
 TR> a Democrat, just as it's naive to expect anything but the
 TR> appropriate pro-life talking points from a Republican. But

 At least he was balanced on this one.

 TR> for a self-styled champion of nuance, political Obama's
 TR> rigidity is spectacular to behold.

 His response was well reasoned. Nuance is not required.
 Goldberg must have stepped out for coffee if he missed that.

 He did go on more about it, mostly on finding common ground to
 reduce abortions. Which would be an excellent Catholic point to
 make.

 TR> In 2003, as chairman of the Illinois Senate Health and Human
 TR> Services Committee, Obama received a statement from Jill
 TR> Stanek, a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn,
 TR> Ill. She testified that at her Chicago-area hospital, she'd
 TR> seen a baby accidentally delivered alive during an abortion
 TR> and then "taken to the soiled-utility room and left alone
 TR> to die."

 And what did she do about that? Even under legal abortion that
 sounds like something prosecutable.

 Since so much of what has been spread on the right in this
 campaign has proven false once the original is found, there is
 no way we can take such an accusation seriously.

 TR> I'm no expert on the Christian Gospel, but something tells
 TR> me that Matthew might consider these wailing creatures the
 TR> least of our brothers.

 Actually, that is covered under the Millstone doctrine.

 ...

 The rest deleted as the focus on abortion is clearly intended to
 appeal to the single issue voters.

 TR> Jonah Goldberg is the author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret
 TR> History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics
 TR> of Meaning.

 TR> Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online.

 IOW a man of no special qualifications.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... Europeans came here by choice, Africans in chains. <- CR
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