(Culture War) The Final Rout of the Left Has Begun
| February 23, 2006 | Posted by Dave S. under Constitution, Courts, Education, Laws, Legal |
South Dakota just passed a law making abortion a felony except in case of medical emergency. It’s now just a matter for the governor to sign it which everyone expects him to do. The law is designed to force the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. The present Supreme Court is unlikely to hold up Roe v. Wade which is based on a made up out of whole cloth (mythical) constitutional guarantee of privacy. It will become again a matter for states to decide for themselves. This is as it should be. A bunch of politicians or judges in Washington have no business defining the moral standards that the good and free people of South Dakota or any other state must live with. Legislated moral values not explicitely enumerated in the constitution are simply something the federal government has no business dictating to the states.
This is the eventual path that ID in public schools will take – each state will decide for itself. I almost feel sorry for the vocal minority that refuses to allow a school board to insist that students be informed that evolution is a theory, not a fact, and as such should be carefully studied and critically considered. In so doing they’ve allowed us to frame them as atheist zealots out to censor any interpretation of empirical data that doesn’t conform to an atheist worldview. Framed in that manner a vast majority is alienated. Now they’re discovering to their elitist academic intellectual chagrin that they live in a democracy. The NCSE’s desperate push to recruit churches onto their side is a real knee slapper as Pim Van Meurs’ headline shrieks US Scientists enlist clergy in evolution battle. That’s just SO hilarious. 
In the culture wars, there’s no doubt that NeoDarwinian evolution is a rallying point for the liberal left and ID is a rallying point with the conservative right. It’s also amusing that Panda’s Thumb author Reed Cartwright announced PT’s nomination for best community award without mentioning in the headline it’s the Koufax Award which only goes to websites promoting “progressive politics” which of course is code for the politics of the liberal left. It’s named the Koufax Award after Sandy Koufax the famous LEFT-handed baseball pitcher. Is Reed trying to make the nomination out to be more than it is or is he trying to bury the fact that NeoDarwinian evolution is a rallying point for the leftists?
As I’ve been saying on blogs for over a year now, the only thing propping up the NeoDarwinian fairy tale today is judicial fiat and that last leg is about to be kicked out from under it. ID will be presented alongside RM+NS and the two will have to compete in the open on a level playing field for the hearts and minds of a new generation. All of us here I think are quite comfortable letting ID and RM+NS compete on a level playing field. That’s because we understand that ID is a strong idea able to compete and win. The NeoDarwinian dogmatists also understand that ID is a strong idea able to compete and win which is why they desperately oppose even mentioning its name to a student. I sometimes wonder if they realize how transparent they are.
35 Responses to (Culture War) The Final Rout of the Left Has Begun
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
DS
I want Roe to be challenged and overturned, but I don’t think now is the time to challenge it, because I am not confident that we have the votes. Counting on Kennedy to vote to overturn Roe is quite a gamble, and if the gamble doesn’t go in our favor we’ll be in worse legal position than we are now because Roe will have been directly reaffirmed twice, setting a “super†precedent. A legal defeat now could set us back years in the legal landscape.
Personally I don’t think Kennedy would vote to overturn Roe for two obvious reasons. First, he is fairly liberal in his constitutional philosophy, and Roe rests on that sort of an approach to constitutional interpretation. Secondly, and most importantly, he has already voted to uphold Roe in the past, even if the decision was at the last minute. So even if he wants to overturn Roe now, he is fighting against two precedents: Roe, and his own vote in Casey. Not only does he have the negative pressure of casting a vote to overturn a well-established precedent that millions of women have come to rely on, but he also has the pressure of admitting that his past ruling was mistaken. I think those two hurdles combined are too much for him to overcome, even if he thinks Roe should be overturned (and that is only speculation itself).
jasondulle
Good points. -ds
Just a sidenote, but listening to ABC news in the car last night, the Gov. of S. Dak. is indicating he’ll probably sign this bill.
DaveScot:
You say because scientists are a tiny part of the population we can ignore what they say about evolution? Car mechanics are a tiny part of the population too, and so are priests, but I have never heard anyone claim that this is a reason to distrust their judgment.
That’s not what I said. Here is what I said and if you want to continue commenting here you will not try to put words in my mouth again causing me to waste time correcting them again.
If car mechanics make claims that a vast number of people reject then there is cause to distrust them too. I’m not aware of any such claims by mechanics. Are you aware of any? If not then your point is without merit and mine stands.
Come to think of it, biologists appear to be in the only major profession that has failed to convince the majority of the public that they’re right. I don’t see many gravity deniers around.
Just to correct your erroneous correction to the first comment, Casey came down 5-4, but Justice White was on the court in dissent. He has since been replaced by Justice Ginsburg, who would shift that Casey outcome to 6-3. Roberts replacing Rehnquist keeps the holding 6-3. Alito replacing O’Connor shifts the outcome to 5-4. Otherwise, I entirely agree with the comments above that neither Kennedy, nor especially Souter, will be swayed to overturn Roe, particularly since Casey stands in the way.
Be that as it may, Stevens is 86 and Bush has 3 years left in office. Do the math. -ds