THE JOURNAL’S LOOPY REASONING ON SCOUTS

They still don’t get it, do they? The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page depicts the 49 Senate votes against federal intervention in the affairs of local schools to be a sign of the power of the gay lobby. Huh? Has it occurred to the Journal that it is a conservative notion that local schools and school boards should be allowed to devise policies that they believe are good for their children? Since when do conservatives think Washington knows best about what a local school can or cannot do in Kansas or Oregon or Texas? No-one here is saying the Scouts shouldn’t be allowed to practise discrimination against openly gay scouts and scout-masters. As I have argued, that’s their constitutional right. But since when is public accommodation for such groups also a constitutional right? This vote has nothing to do with the power of the gay lobby. If it’s so powerful, why can’t it get a federal employment non-discrimination bill passed when over 80 percent of the public supports it? The sad lesson of this vote is that some Republicans are happy to betray their most basic principles of federalism to vent their disdain for honest gay people. The next time some liberal points out to me that the Republicans are just hypocrites, that they have no principles, that they gleefully trample on federalism when it suits their own purposes, I’ll have a hard time coming up with a good retort. I’ll bet the Wall Street Journal editorial page will have a hard time as well.