You may be right; time will tell. But I post for the benefit of any reader here pondering these Fred questions, not just for the one-issue extremists.
Your response would have been the next step if this poster had turned out to be genuine. But they didn’t turn out that way so any further post to educate is moot.
But you have a well thought out perspective that connects well to the overall goal.
The problem though we face is not limited to a battle for hearts and minds because there are too many clever deceivers that can win battles to delay the outcome. And then when a battle is won a new battle starts again with each generation.
What FDT and his following are doing is to point out the true culprit that aids and abets the deceivers, that is the overextended powers of those asserting and wielding federal authority.
In a simple yet accurate perspective, the Federal government has over the past decades centralized and built its power far beyond anything the architects of the US Constitution ever envisioned. FDT represents a movement to ‘decentralize’ by returning to limited enumerated powers.
What this movement means to do is to expose federal power over standards of behavior and social mores, and return these powers to local levels. Such issues as gay marriage, abortion, teen promiscuity, divorce, education and so forth will fall entirely to local levels of government, where they belong.
When you hear Fred Thompson, don’t for a second think he isn’t aware of these issues and others. His folksy charm tends to mask a great historical and constitutional intellect and a sharp legal mind. You will hear him mention phases such as “full faith and credit”, “uniformity clause” and many others pertaining to precise legal foundations that most Americans do not understand in depth. He speaks at many levels. For those in the know, they know he intends to decentralize federal government to its historical and appropriate role.
Your type of arguments will then serve to win the culture war at the local level without interference from a falsely positioned federal policy. This false policy, some of which has found refuge in misinterpreted federal law, has served to shuttle arguments such as yours to a different battlefield in the hopes that people with such arguments will capitulate.
Fred Thompson realizes that battles of the culture war are fought again and again with each generation in perpetuity. Therefore, he seeks to structure the arenas of battle to their historical dimensions, and restrict the federal bully from inserting itself into local issues. Some will argue this levels the cultural battlefields and some will argue the opposite. But history will prove which of the local jurisdictions, which of the fifty states has the better idea. This is why he has called for allowing the States to act as individual laboratories rather than to subscribe to a ‘one size fits all’ federal dictate.
So Fred Thompson, should you meet him in person on the campaign trail may empathize with your issues whatever they may be, but as an elected leader he will ensure there is no interference when you take your arguments to your opponents. In other words, he will allow you to get into round one of your fight and to continue for as long as you are still standing. And if your opponent should prevail, there’s always another round as long as no one rings a bell saying it’s over. But all too often the federal government has rung a bell and told people such as yourself you’re out.
As it stands now you aren’t even allowed into a fighting ring. Don’t say you’re not restricted from fighting now, because you most certainly are. You may think you are fighting but all you are doing is gathering with like minded others and parting shots at straw opponents. The real opponents are the caretakers of the false laws that have limited your movement. The real battle is with these false laws. Consequently, the culture war is a war of law, federal law.