Relatively Ridiculous

Rich Lowry of National Review has a marvelous column today on the weasely relativism of John Kerry.

My problem with Kerry isn't only his abhorrent views on abortion, homosexuality, and a host of other social issues. It's his sneaky, gutless stand on them. As bad as the harpies at NARAL are, at least they have the courage of standing behind their wrongheaded convictions.

Lowry simply nails it here:

Asked at the Arizona debate about Catholic bishops who say it would be a sin to vote for a candidate who, like Kerry, supports unlimited abortion and the destruction of human embryos for research purposes, Kerry said: "I completely respect their views. I am a Catholic. And I grew up learning how to respect those views."

Where to start? Saying that you "respect" the view that the destruction of human life is wrong is almost insulting. This isn't like respecting someone's choice to order the merlot instead of the cabernet. The view that the sanctity of all human life is paramount demands to be accepted or rejected. Merely respecting it is a weasely way of saying you reject it.

Because of Kerry's political gamesmanship, he won't come out and say he rejects it, even though it's the neccessary conclusion of his statements and positions. All his blather about "respect" and quoting the Bible is simply a disingenuous effort to obscure his real beliefs. Lowry continues:

Kerry then shifted to arguing essentially that, even if he were to consider all life sacred, he couldn't do anything about it: "I believe that I can't legislate or transfer to another American citizen my article of faith." This is a sophomoric relativism that ignores the fact that our most important laws have a moral underpinning. In any case, Kerry quickly contradicted it: "There's a great passage of the Bible that says, What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead. And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by faith."

So, Kerry presented diametrically opposed views on the role of morality in public life within about 30 seconds. He went on to say that his environmentalism and his poverty-fighting measures were borne of his faith. In other words, his faith affects everything — including his position on whether the minimum wage should be $5.15 or $7 an hour — but not how he legislates concerning life issues, because it would be wrong to legislate his morality, although he does it all the time.

As many have pointed out, morality is the only thing you can legislate. John Kerry does want to legislate a certain kind of morality. It just doesn't happen to be the morality shared by the vast majority of Americans, so he must pay lip service to "respecting" their morality while acting to subvert it.