Pro-life and pro-personal choice?

I ran across a Conservative website recently where the author declared that

“I believe that the expansion of government power is a direct threat to our personal freedoms, rights and liberties. I believe in the dictum that the government which governs best governs least. I believe the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are two of the three greatest documents ever written. I am pro-life, pro-gun and pro personal choice.”

Ok, I don’t know this person so I don’t have anything against them. But they state very clearly what I’ve heard so many Bush supporters declare. And it doesn’t make any sense to me.

I believe that the expansion of government power is a direct threat to our personal freedoms, rights and liberties.

And yet Bush has expanded his powers and his government directly threatening that which you admit to cherishing. The Constitution does not give the President of the United States sole discretion on which laws he will obey and which laws he throws to the wayside. Yet that’s exactly what Bush does every time a law is passed with which he disagrees. If he decides that you could be a terrorist (the definition of which depends on the day of the week) then he’s going to take away your right to a lawyer, a speedy and fair trial, and your personal freedoms. Because he has taken it upon himself to expand powers to himself that he did not previously have.

I believe in the dictum that the government which governs best governs least. I believe the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are two of the three greatest documents ever written.

And yet the Bush administration has shown that the Constitution is unimportant and that bigger government is better government. He has used his imagined war-time powers to illegally wiretap American citizens, in direct violation of the Constitution. We don’t know how many man hours or how much money has been spent keeping tabs on Granny’s in Florida or Quakers or peaceful student protests (protected by that document you profess to love, by the way). We see that they have wasted resources taking Google to court so that they might be able to tap into their resources_[1].

However, when the country really needs strong government the monkeys in charge are so busy chasing their tails that they knot themselves up and become ineffective. Or do you think that any branch of government acted properly with respect to the Gulf Coast? This is certainly a place where the government has become smaller. Though with no-bid contracts, their waste has become greater.

And when the federal government steps into a family dispute (read Terri Schiavo) that expansion. An emergency session of Congress to decide whether a brain dead woman should or shouldn’t be removed from life support is a waste of time and energy. And please don’t try to argue that all life is sacred and she deserved a chance, etc. While this battle was raging the state of Texas ordered Sun Hudson removed from life support against his mother’s wishes and no one did a damned thing to save that baby. If you want government to stay smaller, then keep it smaller in all circumstances.

I am pro-life, pro-gun and pro personal choice.

How can you want less government but be adamant about policing women’s bodies?_[2] This requires more government simply for the fact that so much money and effort is spent in legislating someone else’s personal morality. For example, how do you prosecute a woman for a pregnancy loss if you don’t know how her pregnancy ended? That requires some form of governmental body to investigate. And at the same time you insist that you’re for personal choice? What choices are those? The choice between an AK-47 or 9 mm? Why so much interest in preventing same sex couples from legally marrying? This, to me, falls under personal choice, but I guess that’s only reserved for good Christian heterosexual couples.

To me this is hypocrisy at it’s best. And it is the hallmark of this Republican administration. When GW speaks then his followers repeat, even if it makes no sense to those of us who think for themselves. But if they stood back and looked at what he has done to their ideology, and their country which they profess to love, they would be just as angry and disgusted as I am. He is taking our Constitution and shitting on it, yet his supporters rejoice. He is giving himself power that he should not have and none of his bots are doing anything about it. Yet they profess to love the freedoms this country has to offer. When will the blinders finally come off? When Congress and SCOTUS are no more and the President reigns supreme? When will enough be enough?

Cross posted to Conservative Amnesty

_{[1]I’m curious as to why they, if they’re looking for ways in which children might access porn, they can’t utilize that system themselves.
[2] Again, I don’t know this person, so this isn’t directed at them per se.}