A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Let us now (tepidly) praise President Bush

I’ve made no secret of my disgruntlement with many aspects of the Bush administration’s policy (foreign and domestic), but it seems to me that I should praise the President when he does something I agree with.

At the risk of seeming too positive, I can think of about a half-dozen occasions before this off the top of my head when I think the President should have used his veto power.

Oh, and this (which accompanied a recent SojoMail) is hysterical (in both senses). The idea that the federal government’s failure to fund something erodes the distinction between church and state is a stretch to put it mildly. If anything, it seems truer to the spirit of separating church and state not to have people’s tax money fund things which offend their religious scruples.

4 responses to “Let us now (tepidly) praise President Bush”

  1. Chris T.

    If anything, it seems truer to the spirit of separating church and state not to have people’s tax money fund things which offend their religious scruples.

    It depends — the military offends the religious sensibilities of many, and government itself seems to offend some conservative religious.

    I do mostly agree on this issue, though. I think the research might be worthwhile, but religious folks demanding that the government pursue or fund that research strikes me as a bit odd, because there’s an element of “physical well-being at any price” involved. We’d do better fighting for health care for all, IMO, which is more of a “care and dignity for all God’s children” kind of issue.

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  2. Lee

    Chris – you’re right. I just think, in terms of church & state there is just as good a case to be made against gov’t funded ESCR as for it.

    (Interestingly, I was reading recently about how there was a lively debate in the early Republic about what obligations Quakers and other conscientious objecters had with respect to military service. The usual arrangement was that they weren’t obliged to serve in the militia, but were obliged to pay for someone to serve in their place. But many forcefully argued that even this was a tyrannical imposition on their consciences.)

    Great point about health care, too. Surely quality health care for all is the most pressing issue we face on that front.

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  3. Lutheran Zephyr

    Of course, they’re making a slippery slope argument: by vetoing ESCR the President is marching to an extremist Conservative Christian drumbeat and emboldening those who would want to legislate belief in God and burn liberals at the stake (slight exaggeration, perhaps).

    I take a staunchly libertarian – Hey Biff, you get your damn hands off her – approach to church/state separation issues. A post about it will go up at at noon on my blog.

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  4. Lee

    The George McFly theory of politics – I like it.

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