Not That There's Anything Wrong With That

As much as I hate to say it, I have to admit to admiring Dick Cheney for saying he's opposed to an amendment prohibiting gay marriages. Instead, said the Vice President, the matter should be left up to the individual states. WOW!! It took balls to stand up to the religious right which has taken over the Republican party.

For years I considered myself a Republican. And the reason was simple: They were the party which stood for less government. That's why I supported Reagan in 1976 when he ran for the nomination (though I ended up having to settle for a Ford), and why I actually voted for him in both 1980 and 1984. He was out to tame the Federal government, and return power to the states.

But in the last dozen years or so, the GOP has been corrupted by the evangelical wackos which have infiltrated the party. Bush's proposal to ban gay marriages with a constitutional amendment is but one example of this. His repeated opposition to loosening the restrictions on Federal funding for stem cell research is another. And whatever your personal views on abortion may be, it isn't the government's job to tell you that you can't have one. The government--or George Bush--has no right to impose someone else's religious standards on the entire population. In fact, isn't that why we overthrew the Taliban?

Jeb Bush's intervention in the Terry Schiavo case is another example of the religious fervor which has gripped the party. That situation was an unfortunate tragedy, and it should have been left to the family to work it out among themselves. The state of Florida had no business getting involved in the matter. And back in 1998, then Governor James Gilmore (also a Republican) did the same thing in Virginia in a similar situation.

So bravo to Dick Cheney for remembering what the Republican party used to stand for.... Though I'm still not voting for him.

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