John Kass: ‘Will Tolerance For The Faithful Be Tolerated?’

Source:Chicago Tribune- columnist John Kass.

“With the issue of same-sex marriage argued before the Supreme Court and raging elsewhere in America, a question:

Is it possible to be a traditional Christian or Muslim or Orthodox Jew — and hold to one’s faith on what constitutes marriage — and not be considered a bigot?

And is faith now a problem to be overcome, first marginalized by the state and then contained, so as not to get in the way of great changes to come?

The issue of same-sex unions is by nature contentious and divisive. It is not merely about equal protection under the law, but redefining the foundation of our culture, which is the family itself.” 

From Real Clear Politics 

I already talked about this in my piece about what Jack Hunter wrote on so-called social conservatives, that you can see here:The FreeState. 

As I pointed out in that piece when it comes to Conservatives and conservatism, I guess it depends on what you mean by Conservative and conservatism. Conservative to me is about conserving. And when you’re talking about politics and government, a Conservative is someone who believes in conserving the U.S. Constitution for everyone. Not just Anglo-Saxons and perhaps other European-Americans, or just for Protestants, or just for straights, but everyone, including gays.

If you really are a Conservative, I don’t think the question shouldn’t be: “What’s the conservative position on same-sex-marriage?” The question should be: “What’s the Federal Government’s role if any here?”

Marriage has traditionally a state issue. I don’t think you change that because we now have states that recognize gays as Americans and human beings who have the same constitutional rights as everyone else and therefor it’s now time for Uncle Sam to step and just regulate marriage for the entire country, but perhaps other social issues that have traditionally been handled by the states. For the simple reason that we’re a Federal Republic that has sovereign states that get to regulate social policy within their own state.

Of course you can be a Conservative and say that same-sex-marriage is wrong and homosexuality is bad as a whole. But you can’t make a constitutional conservative case for the Federal Government stepping in and taking over functions that have always been left to the states. 

You can also see this post on WordPress.

Commentary: Peter Wehner: 'The Virtue of Moderation'

Source:Comment Magazine- columnist Peter Wehner.

"I recently read a splendid book by Harry Clor, On Moderation: Defending an Ancient Virtue in a Modern World, whose purpose is to “articulate a coherent, defensible case for moderation as a virtue, the possession and encouragement of which is important for us.”

Maybe the best way to begin is to be clear on what Clor says moderation is not. Political moderation is not, he writes, the antithesis of holding principled and wholehearted commitments. It’s not simply a matter of being in the middle of two extremes. It is not “tepid, middle compromise” between opposing ideals.

Like thoughtful scholarship, political moderation, according to Clor, takes a disinterested account of opposing perspectives on complex questions. It is synonymous with proportionality. And it recognizes limits and takes into account circumstances. For example, determining how much liberty and how much restraint a society embraces can’t be answered in the abstract; it depends on circumstances. “A course of action, policy, or pronouncement that is valid in some or most cases would be wrong, even disastrous, in certain situations, and there will be exceptions to any proposition you could affirm,” Clor writes. Immoderation, on the other hand, “is characterized by a one-sided or absolute commitment to a good that is in fact only one good among several.”

Professor Clor goes on to warn that we should want politics that incorporates moderation and “you should be quite afraid of any leaders, movements, or polities wholly lacking them.”

From Commentary Magazine 

Walter Block: 'War, Peace, & Statism'

Source:Mises Media- author and columnist Walter Block.

"The Gregory T. Morin Lecture, presented at the 2012 Mises Institute Supporters Summit: "The Truth About War: A Revisionist Approach".  Recorded at Callaway Gardens, Georgia, on 26 October 2012." 

From Mises Media

I agree with Walter Block on a few points here as well and disagree with him on one major point. 

I'm also not an Anarchist (surprise, surprise) and I agree on Walter Block's general view of the role of government. Which is essentially to protect the innocent from predators, not run our lives for us. That every American has the right to live their own life, even as they see fit, just as long as they're not hurting any innocent person with what they're doing. 

Where I disagree with Walter Block has to do with the comparing government taxes with the dues that one pays to be member of a social club. Club members pay club dues, even if they don't use every service available at the club. If they just go to the club for the food and drinks and socialize with their friends in the dining room or a social room, but they don't play golf there, they don't workout there, they don't swim there, etc, they're still obligated to pay for all of their club dues. 

Being a member of a free, developed society, is similar to being the member of a social club. The management of the club, is similar to the government in a society. The government represents the society ( at least officially) and the management represents the club members (at least officially) to see to it that it's the best club that it can be. 

We pay club dues to be a member of a club. We pay taxes to be a member of a free, developed country, that's represented and managed by the government. And we can argue about what exactly our club and government should be doing and what it fees it should be charging, but we all pay those fees, or risk having sanctions being placed against us.

Discovery: 'The Proud History of the Republican Party'

Source:Discovery- with a look at a Republican Party that almost doesn't exist at all anymore.

"The Republican Party formed by abolitionists in 1854 take bold steps in securing freedoms for former slaves until the Democrats regain control of Congress. Once in control of Congress and many of the southern state governments the Democrats once again stripped away the rights African Americans wouldn't again fully achieve until the civil rights movement of the 1960's.

- In 1865, Congressional Republicans unanimously backed the 13th Amendment, which made slavery unconstitutional. Among Democrats, 63 percent of senators and 78 percent of House members voted: "No."

- In 1866, 94 percent of GOP senators and 96 percent of GOP House members approved the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing all Americans equal protection of the law. Every congressional Democrat voted: "No."

- February 28, 1871: The GOP Congress passed the Enforcement Act, giving black voters federal protection.

- February 8, 1894: Democratic President Grover Cleveland and a Democratic Congress repealed the GOP's Enforcement Act, denying black voters federal protection.

- October 16, 1901: GOP President Theodore Roosevelt invited to the White House as its first black dinner guest Republican educator Booker T. Washington. 

- January 26, 1922: The U.S. House adopted Rep. Leonidas Dyer's (R., Mo.) bill making lynching a federal crime. Filibustering Senate Democrats killed the measure.

- Until 1935, every black federal legislator was Republican. America's first black U.S. Representative, South Carolina's Joseph Rainey, and our first black senator, Mississippi's Hiram Revels, both reached Capitol Hill in 1870. On December 9, 1872, Louisiana Republican Pinckney Benton Stewart "P.B.S." Pinchback became America's first black governor.

- August 17, 1937: Republicans opposed Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Supreme Court nominee, U.S. Senator Hugo Black (D., Al.), a former Klansman who defended Klansmen against race-murder charges.

- September 24, 1957: Eisenhower deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to desegregate Little Rock's government schools over the strenuous resistance of Governor Orval Faubus (D., Ark.).

- May 6, 1960: Eisenhower signs the GOP's 1960 Civil Rights Act after it survived a five-day, five-hour filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats.

- November 2, 1983: President Reagan established Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday, the first such honor for a black American.

- President Reagan named Colin Powell America's first black national-security adviser while GOP President George W. Bush appointed him our first black secretary of state.

Facts are from Deroy Murdock who  is an advisory board member of Project 21, a Washington-based network of black free-market advocates." 

From RCO 64 

The Republican Party has never been a left-wing, or even center-left, social democratic party. They've always been, for the most part (with perhaps today being the exception) a center-right, pro-constitution, pro-limited government, pro-fiscal responsibility, pro-individual, pro-national security, pro-rule of law party, that would fit in very well with most center-right parties, at least in the developed world. 

But pre-Christian-Right, pre-Tea Party populists, the Republican Party had a strong right-progressive faction, led by Tom Dewey, Dwight Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, even, that believed in civil rights for all Americans and that all Americans should have the same constitutional, individual rights and responsibilities, as every other American, including African-Americans and women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. 

The reason why the Republican Party got the nickname the Grand Ole Party, because they were a big tent party with a strong classical conservative faction in it, that's always been there, to go along with a strong right-progressive faction in it. And why they were the Party of Abraham Lincoln that freed the African slaves and gave them the same constitutional rights as European-Americans, including Souther-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant men in this country. That Republican Party is all but gone today.