Dear pro-life Republicans
Unmitigated efforts to advance stringent abortion restrictions create a losing political proposition. Such efforts are akin to the Left’s ill-advised and fortunately fading mantra to “Defund the Police.”
These and similar propositions are presented as moral imperatives leaving no room for either sincere debate or meaningful compromise. However, government should not be the arbiter of morality. It is woefully ill-suited to the task.
Legal does not mean moral, and illegal is not necessarily immoral. Ideally, government should be “amoral.” That is not to say that it should refuse to address affirmative harms to persons and/or their property, which is occasioned by the actions of others; however, government should be indifferent to the “moral” motivations of the parties.
Government functions best when dealing with traditional crimes or “bad acts,” for which there is near universal agreement as to the “wrongness” of the act. When one uses government to impose moral ideals by force of law, advocates necessarily implement a theocracy with Statism being the official religion. The resulting institution is both ineffective and ultimately immoral (thus tyrannical). Morality is individual and must be embraced voluntarily; therefore, morality can never be imposed by legislative fiat.
Polarizing social issues are political Red Meat, which are intended to create frenzies within segments of the electorate. Rather than engaging in efforts to change minds (or agreeing to disagree), activists and consultants cater to the baser traits of our bestial species. They foment fear and instigate resentment.
The perpetuation of these hot button issues by the legacy parties arises from the mindset that the electorate is so (unwaveringly) divided that turnout wins elections. Both parties tend to pander to the political fringes. The fringe elements need to be emotionally motivated to the polls. They must have a “cause” or feel as though they have a personal stake in the outcome.
However, the more motivation that is required the more irrational the positions become. When you pander to extremists, you lose balance and reason. Your positions become less defensible and you risk being toppled from the tightrope, upon which you find yourself precariously standing.
