Ted Cruz by Gage Skidmore
Liberals, as far left to the right
as you are, you have to understand that the conservative faction is essential,
and in fact a necessary aspect of the two-party system. There will always be people on one of the two
sides of this fence with any issue--those who want to change something, and
those who want to keep it the same. The
conservative/liberal conflict has always been a part of this country from its
genesis--those who wanted to be a new country, and those who still wanted to be
part of England. And it has continued
throughout our history: the debate about slavery, women's rights, civil
rights. Now through the lens of history
it is easy to see the progressives were mostly right. The progressives are usually right, because
in enough time the country as a whole progresses
more to the left. Still the
conservative base is a necessary evil to tame the radical progressives. To keep us from going over to communism after
the great depression, to keep us from weakening our military in times of peace,
to keep unions from getting too much power.
However, in the past once the country as a whole progressed to the left
these past discussions were no longer revisited. No one debates the issue of slavery, women's
suffrage, or desegregation in schools anymore.
Yet lately, the conservative right has been unable to get past any issue
even after it has been decided and the country has moved on. It's time now that we eliminate some of these
issues. Abortion, religious
indoctrination, and gay marriage, are fights that need to be ended for the sake
of the country. We all suffer when the
party to our right is a party of stubborn fools. We need to advance them, so our congress can
go back to intelligent debates. They
need to become again the party that argues for the status quo, not the party
that argues for what once was.
Roe v. Wade was a 1973 landmark
Supreme Court Decision that defended the constitutionality of abortion under
the privacy clause of the 14th Amendment. This argument was decided over 40 years
ago. But from the countless attempts
today of republicans trying to repeal Obamacare, it is obvious that some on the
right do not respect the rulings of the highest court in the land. Now this is a very personal decision for some
people, and they have the right to feel that this ruling was wrong, but that
doesn't change the fact that they have to respect this ruling. To live in a country
that believes in rule of law, it should be agreed upon that we cannot argue anymore
that abortion is illegal. Yet still
states in the present day try their subtle ways to make an abortion as
inconvenient as possible. There is only
one center for abortions in the entire state of North Dakota, and still the
state legislature decided to pass the most restrictive abortion measure ever,
prohibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Anyone familiar with conception knows that it
is usually around this time that the woman even learns that she is pregnant. The Supreme Court had ruled a woman has the
right to abortion until the stage of viability.
This six-week time frame is against the ruling of Roe v. Wade, and yet
it manages to get passed. This is the
equivalent of a state allowing segregated schools in opposition to Brown v.
Board of Education. But Supreme Court
ruling are just rulings. They need to be
enforced by the executive branch. In the
1960's when schools in the south tried to stay segregated, President Lyndon B.
Johnson sent the FBI down to the states to carry out this ruling. This is the precedent for President Barack
Obama to use whatever means necessary to protect these abortion clinics and a
woman's right to choose. We need to deny
any legislature that is against the rulings of Roe v. Wade. We need to end this abortion debate. It's not a debate anymore. It was resolved forty years ago. There are just sore losers now, who will
never bend because of their faith.
The faith that is strongest against
abortion is the Christian faith. Christians
have their right to believe abortion is wrong.
But they do not have the right to feel their religious beliefs should affect
legislature. "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion."
This is actually the first ten words of the Bill of Rights, that's how
important the Founding Fathers felt it was.
Clear as day, it is written that creating any law that respects a
religion is unconstitutional, and yet it is disregarded openly. On our money it says, "In God We Trust." Added to our Pledge of Allegiance were the
two words "Under God" in 1954. These are
examples of the Christian God being part of our American culture. Conservatives will argue that from The Founding
Fathers on, America was always a Christian nation. Too bad, they really don't understand those
great men who founded this nation. John
Adams hated organized religion. Thomas
Jefferson was a deist who wrote his own bible where Jesus performed no
miracles. There are countless quotes
from the founders of our country putting down organized religion. Yet conservative pundits continue to believe
America should always be a Christian nation.
They are so absolute in their faith they feel it is okay for creationism
to be taught in schools as an alternative to evolution. Well no, it is not okay, it is not even constitutional. Teaching creationism in school isn't
something like the terms "Easter Vacation," or "Christmas Pageant," or things
of that nature. Teaching creationism is
respecting the myth of one religion as if it was fact. Would anyone agree with teaching the Greek
myth of the Primordials creating the universe?
They both have as much of a chance at being true. Evolution is still a theory, not a concrete
scientific law. But what is a scientific
law is that creationism is not an explanation of the universe. Dinosaurs did exist, the earth is 6000 years
old, and allowing this to be taught to students is essentially indoctrinating
our children into the Christian faith.
We are not just teaching about the religion--which schools should educate
about all the religions--we are teaching that this religious myth in fact
explains the universe. This lesson plan
is unconstitutional and needs to be removed from any curriculum taught in
public schools. Conservatives will argue
they have a right to teach it, they will even argue this history of the
universe to be true. Christian beliefs
have no place in the politics of our country.
We need to eliminate conservative positions based solely on the
Christian faith. They are unconstitutional
positions. And once the nation as a
whole decides on this ground rule--to not use religious faith to decide
legislature--then we can agree there is no reason for gay marriage to be
prohibited.
Gay marriage is against the
Christian faith, and by all means Christian churches are within their right to
not allow gay marriages in their church.
This is the idea of separation of church and state. The state cannot tell the church how to
conduct its policies, but likewise the church cannot tell the state how to do
theirs. Marriage is not a religious
contract. People can get married by a
justice of the peace. At the end of the
ceremony, the justice of the peace or the pastor both say, "by the power vested
in me by the state-- not by a religious establishment. It is a state contract not a religious one, so
its regulation should be defined by the state.
So the argument that it is condemned in Leviticus is irrelevant. The sanctity
of marriage is also irrelevant, since sanctity means the quality of being
holy. So when we take the religion
aspect out of it, what are we now banning here?
Two consenting adults who love each other cannot be considered a legal
partnership in the eyes of the state, because some people based on their
religious views are uncomfortable with homosexual love. How is this American? How is this freedom? In 2004 a good group of Americans were
against gay marriage, and it helped win the re-election of George W. Bush. Almost ten years later, most Americans are
now for gay marriage. This is proof that
America naturally progresses to the left.
But our elected government needs to move past this debate. States rebelled against the idea of ending
slavery, and still the 13th Amendment was passed. Our president needs to stop acting like a kid
on the sidelines. He has only said his
opinion has changed, and he is now for the concept of gay marriage. He needs to step it up, and propose a federal
amendment protecting the rights of gays to marry. Make it law, and end this debate like Lincoln
ended the debate of slavery in 1865.
Our elected liberal leaders need to
act with half of the aggression as the conservatives. They are creatively coming up with every
possible restriction to ban abortion.
They are trying to indoctrinate their religion in our schools. They are arguing passionately to prohibit gay
marriage. We need to stop entertaining
this debate. We need to fight back and
fight harder, and eliminate these discussions entirely. We need to express how we really feel. That these opinions are not respected because
they are based on religious beliefs and not about freedoms granted in a
democratic nation. These arguments are
not valid because they are unconstitutional.
These debates are over. And then
as a nation we can move past these arguments, we can become a more secular
nation, and in turn a more enlightened one.
We can then have more intelligent debates that will make our country
stronger, instead of what we have now.
Where one side is tolerant of other people and the other side is bigotry
shielded in the armor of a certain religion.