NO APOLOGIES

The blog today is again devoted to the now-amplified comments of the third leading Republican in the Senate. I make no apologies for this. This is not about homosexuality as such. It is about the principles of limited government, tolerance, civility, compassion and the soul of the Republican party. There are no deeper political issues. No war is worth fighting if our political leaders feel contempt for basic liberties at home. I realized this more profoundly after reading Santorum’s full remarks, which are far more alarming than the small, doctored quote that created the immediate fuss. If you care about basic liberties in the privacy of your own home, read Santorum’s attack on them, my arguments below, and make your own mind up. My own position is similar to this reader’s:

As a Christian, a conservative, and a registered Republican, I am shocked and appalled (well, maybe appalled and a little less shocked than I’d like to be) at Senator Santorum’s comments. I cannot believe that this is what passes for conservative thought these days. I was raised a conservative by two very conservative parents who always told me that they were conservative because they didn’t like the government telling them what they could and could not do, especially in the privacy of their own home. Being a conservative always seemed to be about individual freedom and liberty to them, and it is one of the things that has led me back to conservatism after a brief (and fictitious, ultimately) hiatus somewhere left of center. Now, I feel ashamed to be a registered Republican and am beginning to regret that post-9/11 moment when I decided that the Republican party was dead right on international and foreign affairs and headed in the right direction on domestic issues, headed back to their conservative roots on issues such as these sodomy laws. To deny those who might choose, as free adults, in the privacy of their own home, to engage in behavior that is opposed to another’s morality, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, is repugnant to my notions of conservatism. If Santorum is somehow representative of what is conservatism in the United States today, then I say no thank you to it.

Me too.