Culture Wars: Ideologues taking away your rights

Culture Wars, part 1 of 2
(link to part 2)

Context: A central theme of this blog is to argue for a new political party that differs from the two main parties and the smaller alternatives. In view of popular discontent with the two parties and the urgent problems America faces, advocacy for something different is just common sense. The rationale is simple:

• If America's problems are any indication, our politics failed. 
• Democratic and Republican parties and policies are dominated by political and religious ideologues, special interest money and self-interest.
• The two parties will not or cannot reform themselves in any meaningful way.
• An uncorrupted, secular pragmatic party would be an improvement; It is inherently better able to defend our rights by defending the constitution.

Culture wars

Culture wars in politics include religious ideology (belief) dictating political policy. These days, religion in politics generally means fewer civil rights for Americans. Modern religious teachings seem to tell people what they cannot do, not what they should be free to do.

Sometimes religion directly conflicts with our secular constitution. That happens when religious belief argues that the constitution prohibits any civil liberty that offends the belief. That is the essence of culture war. Like it or not, we are in it. If people who believe in a secular constitution and a free society do not defend themselves, their rights will be taken away to the extent it suits religious belief. Those are the stakes.

Messin' with Texas, and everywhere else

Most religious zealots are not content to simply allow fellow Americans the common sense courtesy of lawful personal practice of their civil rights. If a civil right offends religious belief, zealots will try to take it away if it exists (abortion) or fight it if not (gay marriage). The situation is unfortunate and unnecessary, but that is the reality. If patriots do not fight for their rights, they can be lost or may never come to pass. Those rights will be lost to religious beliefs.

The war now

The culture war is intense. It is a top priority of politicians with aggressive religious agendas. The modern Republican party in particular is dominated by religious extremism. That extremism dictates top Republican party political goals. One goal is to intensify the attack on abortion that began after the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. An example is the recent Republican House vote to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

The House vote came despite the fact that Planned Parenthood was already banned from using tax dollars for nearly all abortions. Instead of making the new ban simply block tax dollars for all abortions, religious zealots want to crush Planned Parenthood out of existence if they can. This is all-out war and prisoners will be shot.

Symmetry: What's good for the goose . . . . 

Assume that in these times of budget austerity it is a good thing to ban federal funding of the Planned Parenthood charity. Planned Parenthood received $16.9 million in federal tax dollars in 2009. Fine. That is defensible. We save about $17 million and there will be a fight over every single cut tax dollar that is spent. We get a small fiscal victory by not funding Planned Parenthood. For this discussion, just ignore the good (or bad) work that the charity did with our tax dollars. But, that spending small cut isn't the end of the story. Not by a long, long shot.

More fiscal restraint: In the spirit of fiscal restraint, the federal government should also ban all federal funding for any child that is born to any woman who tried to get an abortion but couldn't for any reason, e.g., poverty, lack of access, etc. In essence, that child would be off the federal and state books. The religious zealots can take the moral high ground and pay for the consequences of their religious policies - they can pay for the child's schooling and health care.
 
That may be harsh. But it is no less harsh than forcing a woman to have a child against her will and sometimes ruining her life, e.g., by interfering with her ability to finish school or driving her to death in a botched illegal abortion. Sometimes the consequence of forcing religion on us is the loss of human life, e.g., the mother, not the fetus.

That's not all: There should be a 100% ban on all federal money going to all religious organizations or charities that receive tax dollars. Common sense says that that is fine and defensible because of austere economic times. It is time to kill or defund the 1996 Faith-Based Initiative that uses federal tax dollars to fund religious charities ($2.2 billion in 2005). Religious charities get our tax money even though they can and do use our taxes to (i) illegally discriminate by hiring within their organizations on the basis of religion and (ii) discriminate against people receiving aid who do not share the charities' religious beliefs. According Theocracy Watch, President Bush said in 2004 that faith-based initiatives are there to "fund programs that save Americans one soul at a time".

Unfortunately, we can no longer afford to save souls, one at a time or in bulk. The cost-cutting rationale that applies to secular charities like Planned Parenthood fully and equally applies to religious charities. If cost saving is the rationale, then it is obviously time to stop spending tax dollars on both. That would in no way affect the capacity of any religious or secular organization to continue its charitable work. They just need to do it with their own resources.

The logic here is obvious and compelling: Symmetry is called for. It is right and decent. Asymmetry is not just unfair, it is un-American and immoral. Right now, the Republican party is in hot pursuit of immoral asymmetry. They want to kill secular charities they dislike but leave religious organizations alone. That is un-American. That is the kind of poison you get when religion is injected into politics.

The real fiscal prize: This is this is the prize worth fighting for. Religious organizations have declared and are fighting political war in the U.S., e.g., in the 2008 Pulpit Initiative and in other ways. For example, U.S. Catholic Bishops require strict bans on federal funding for abortions before allowing or consenting to passage of Obamacare and other legislation. Catholics who do not cooperate face the threat of excommunication. That is political hardball. Under the circumstances, it is fair and moral for religious organizations to start paying their fair share in return for their full and unfettered participation in politics and culture wars.

After all, religious organizations are trying to take away our rights through the political process. If that is where their sacred beliefs lead them, that is fine. But, Americans who disagree have every right to demand and expect a fight on a level playing field.

End of Culture Wars, part 1
(link to part 2)