re: #533 Hanoch

Let’s be realistic. I know of no Republican candidate who made “sex”, “religion”, or “creationism” the centerpiece of a national campaign against a Democratic adversary.

What Curmudgeon is apparently attempting to say (however obliquely) is that conservatives should jettison social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and human embryonic testing (those have, indeed, been raised by conservative Republicans in campaigns against Democrats) to strengthen the Republican party. Curmudgeon might as well bang his/her head against a wall—it isn’t going to happen. The bottom line is there are those who see a moral society as the ultimate end of politics, and those who are content to sacrifice morality on the alter of political power. Apparently, Curmudgeon belongs to the latter camp.

I think Curmudgeon has a good grasp on civics and understands that it’s not the governments role to make us the electorate they wish they had.

Think back to prohibition- it was started as a movement to improve the morality of the nation by ending public drunkenness. What resulted in this unnatural meddling of society was much worse.

When you allow a power, in this case- the government, to tinker with the fabric of society, you are relinquishing authority to an entity that cannot possibly plan a society as complex as what we have. In economic terms, we’re talking about socialism and communism. Do you really want the government, who can’t do anything right, the authority to do the same thing to morality that they would do trying to plan a better economic system?