Values Be Damned!

This mosque (really a cultural center) "controversy" has me thinking: why is it that certain issues are so heated, so emotional, so visceral, that facts, values and normal principles are cast aside for appearances? We have ourselves a case like that right here in Georgia: Republican candidate for Governor Nathan Deal hedged on the Islamic Center even more so than Roy Barnes did. Former Governor Barnes took a tougher stand, saying that it was a poor choice, and that it was in bad taste. As badly as it pains me to say it, Mr. Deal came out on top in this case. It was Roy who threw the American values aside in hopes of garnering a few more middle-of-the-road voters, and I was ashamed to watch it happen.

Issues like this tend to do this to candidates and parties; they're completely torn apart, split down the middle, and turned on their respective heads. Conservative Republicans are screaming about Constitutional rights when it comes to the Tea Party, but seem blind when it comes to this issue of religion. The Democratic Party prides itself on being the party of inclusion; less judgmental, more accepting...more "liberal." But majority leader Reid broke ranks and called it a poor choice. That's not even the issue. Mr. Deal nailed it when he said he wouldn't want New Yorkers telling Georgians where to put a church. It is, at best, an issue of religious freedom. I could only imagine the Fox-News-led uproar if someone attempted to stop a baptist church from being built someone in America. An at its worst, it's still a property rights issue. They can build it. Period.

Just today, Orrin Hatch, who in my opinion is pretty clear conservative, broke ranks with his party to support to the right to build. And I can almost guarantee when he's up for election again, someone will pin him down on it. Every single time a Republican breaks ranks with the party, he or she incurs a primary challenger. Ask Lisa Murkowski. Wait a couple of years, and ask Lindsey Graham. Nobody seems to have any fundamental principles anymore. If you believe in religious freedom, believe in it for all. If you believe in private property rights, believe in it for all. Don't let your emotional reaction, potential voters (or the generally anti-anyone-who's-not-like-us-feeling that your party normally projects) stand in your way. I commend Nathan Deal, Orrin Hatch, Chris Christie, and the like for standing on principle and not party line. Tea Partiers, ultra-conservatives, and voters with no real basis for beliefs will take the Republican party to hell in a tea pot. If more men like those listed don't show up, then the Republican party will not be in existence in a shorter time than most people think.