Posted on 03/31/2005 9:38:01 AM PST by Kerry Crusher
There exists among my culture war brethren a hope, albeit a dwindling one, that the Terri Schiavo tragedy marks a great catharsis in the collective conscience of Americans. Finally, the thinking goes, Americans will awaken to the horrors wrought by the culture of death. Finally, people will understand government is no friend of the faithful.
Lawrence Henry has wondered allowed on the cyber pages of the American Spectator whether the Schiavo situation is “It”:
Conservatives have been asking themselves the question for years: "Is this finally it?" "This" being whatever event in the news exemplified a current gag-making excess of the culture or the polity or the law, and "it" being the point at which the nation as a whole simply won't take it anymore. There have been many points along the way when it seemed as though society might rear up and refuse to go in the current direction.
So far, no.
Certain "it" moments have actually occurred. The left has been trying to re-stage the destruction of public support for the Vietnam war and, twinned with it, Richard Nixon's downfall, ever since. California's Proposition 13 campaign, described in my column, "The California Circus Redux," started a round of tax rollbacks that inspired other state tax-cut initiatives and climaxed in the 1984 Tax Reform Act under Ronald Reagan. That, in turn, led to the prosperity which has latterly defined American life. My column pointed out the similarities between Proposition 13 and the Gray Davis California gubernatorial recall vote, all the ramifications of which have yet to be realized.
"Sooner or later," I concluded, "voters will rise up and cut politicians off at the knees. The results might not be pretty. Only richly deserved."
IS THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE THE "IT" MOMENT OF NATIONAL POLITICS? Will this be the point at which country's consciousness turns, as it turned on the flights of two helicopters, one from Saigon, one from Washington, D.C., in the early 1970s? Or on the landslide brass-off the voters delivered to the political establishment decades ago in California?
Alas, it is not so. Public opinion pretty clearly – and depressingly -- demonstrates that we are well out of the mainstream on this one.
The public, by 63 percent-28 percent, supports the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, and by a 25-point margin opposes a law mandating federal review of her case. Congress passed such legislation and President Bush signed it early today.
That legislative action is distinctly unpopular: Not only do 60 percent oppose it, more — 70 percent — call it inappropriate for Congress to get involved in this way. And by a lopsided 67 percent-19 percent, most think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.
This ABC News poll also finds that the Schiavo case has prompted an enormous level of personal discussion: Half of Americans say that as a direct result of hearing about this case, they've spoken with friends or family members about what they'd want done if they were in a similar condition. Nearly eight in 10 would not want to be kept alive.
As my friend David Limbaugh (who has a great blog) has posited, the Schiavo case is a turning point in the culture war.
This case marks a turning point in the Culture War, where society is making a giant leap toward the dark side, embracing the lie over truth and death over life. In our relentless quest to become like gods, we are crossing another sacred line, and it is hard to imagine how we might return.
He is right.
That said, however, I believe we are on the eve of a major turning point in the culture war and that a great “It” is just around the corner.
I believe in just a few weeks or months time the Supreme Court of the United States will uphold a lower court ruling banning the display of the Ten Commandments on public property.
I am not a lawyer, so it is entirely possible I’m smoking banana peels here. But to believe the Court is honestly deliberating about this is to believe the Justices see their role as interpreters of the U.S. Constitution. I have been long disabused of such a gentle and childish notion. Clearly, a majority of the Court sees its role as dictators of policy.
Recent decisions by the Court bear out my suspicion.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled that state laws that make sodomy a crime are unconstitutional and have sited international opinion (!) to strike down the death penalty for minors (for the record, I oppose the death penalty, but Justice Kennedy’s use of international opinion in his opinion was an abomination.) And in perhaps the most telling decision, they refused to hear an appeal on the “Under God” case only because the atheist plaintiff did not have standing. These are not precursors to a Ten Commandments-friendly decision.
Understand, I don’t want this to happen; I’ve only come to grips with the likelihood that it is going to happen. And if it does, we may finally have our “It” moment. We may finally be able to thwart the death blows being struck against our culture. To paraphrase Paul, “the Court will intend it for evil, but God will intend it for good.”
A decision so hostile to our core value system will surely open the eyes of the morally asleep. Won’t it?
No. I have no faith in the culture at large.
I prefer to fight.
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