Gov Pataki on WMUR’s Closeup (4/5):
I agree completely with the idea that we have to protect peoples’ religious freedom. There’s no question about that. I quietly am, in my own way, deeply religious and I don’t want someone to tell me that I can’t practice my religion as I see fit. But on the other hand, this is America and when it comes to human rights, when it comes to treating people equally, I thought we got over that fight when Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, but apparently we have to continue to fight that fight and I’m happy to do that.
This is what happens when politicians want to straddle the fence on an issue: “on the other hand….”. The construct is always the same – “SURE, I’m in favor or <insert issue here> BUT!”. Some forget that they shouldn’t use “BUT!” – very obvious and when we hear it, we should know that whatever they JUST said is about to be thrown under the bus. Whatever they say AFTER is the ONLY thing they believe in to the point that they’ll vote for or support.
So IF you are in that first group (or your beliefs are), kiss them goodbye as far as that politician is concerned. In this case, Pataki just told people of faith that they cannot look to him to fight for them. THAT is the political reality – he will not help us. Period. As we saw this past week in Indiana, we saw the Republican Establishment put aside our FOUNDATIONAL Law and kowtowed to the Democrat Identity Politics regime. THEY brought the pain and they caved. They cowered to people that would never vote for them EVAH! and threw their own supporters, their base, under the Democrat bus. They trembled, they ran, they fled, they flew away from a Culture War battle that will embolden the anti-Christian Left.
Yup, the same guy, Gov. Pence, that has said that Obama emboldens our enemies by appeasing them, just did the same thing.
There’s a reason why polls show Republicans are held in slight regard – the why is in that they do it to themselves and the base gives them the poor marks as well as the Dems. So, once more, we see Republicans forwarding a Democrat issue and throwing away what used to be that of Republicans.
Now, certainly not ALL Republicans are doing so. Ted Cruz has been very outspoken as to the right priorities on this issue and this morning on Meet The Press when Chuck Todd pressed him on this issue, Gov Bobby Jindal (R-LA) had the perfect answer for a very biased framing of the question:
Todd: Do you agree with some social conservatives taht you think Govs Pence and Hutchinson in Arkansas and Indiana essentially caved?
Jindal: Well, Chuck, I was very worried about the law in Indiana. I’m disappointed. Let’s remember what this debate was all about. This is about BUsiness owners that don’t want to have to chose between their Christian faith, their sincerly held religious faith, and being able to run their businesses. Now, what they don’t want is the Government to force them to participate in wedding ceremonies that contradict their beliefs. They simply want the right to say we don’t want to be forced to participate in those ceremonies. I was disappointed to see you could see Christians and their businesses face discrimination in Indiana. I hope that the legislature in Indiana will fix that and rectify that.
Chuck, there used to be a bipartisan consensus in this country around religious liberty that as Americans, saying that we all don’t have to agree with each other but respect each other’s Rights and Freedoms. And that’s what this debate is really about: are we going to use Government to contradict their own beliefs?
Todd: …So you think it is OK based on religious conviction for a business to deny services to a same-sex couple?
Jindal: Chuck, we’re not talking about restaurants denying service to people who come and want to have dinner. We’re not talking about day-to-day routine commercial transactions, we’re talking about a very specific example here of business owners (florist, musicians, of caterers) who are being forced to either pay thousands of dollars or close their businesses if they don’t want to participate in a wedding ceremony that contradicts their religious beliefs. So in that instance, yeah, I think that the First Amendment means that we allow to obey their conscience, to obey their religious beliefs
Catch that framing? Todd went down the Road of Innuendo to suggest that all of the debate is an either/or debate – either one totally discriminates or one doesn’t. It doesn’t matter what the situation or the intent. What the Left is believing that ALL businesses are a public utility to be run under Government rules and regulations – and of course, their pontifications and rage. “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state” – there can be no room for the Individual especially outside of the Media (but I repeat myself – the Government) Narrative.
What Todd intimates is “WHY do you think you should go against government?” – a perfect example that the Left doesn’t even realize that religious beliefs DEFINE how much we of faith are? THey believe it is, if they acknowledge religion in any kind of way at all, merely a compartmentalization – turn it on, turn it off depending on the place, the time, or the situation. How quaint they see us. And not once, not once, does “fair and balanced” come from his lips in any kind of way in arguing the opposite position, that of faith, during the rest of the show.
After all, it’s settled, right?
Bobby Jindal does a good job of doing the brass tacks drill down in articulating the position (given the time he had). But Todd just brushed it off as “not even a concern”. And THAT, folks, is the problem. If someone on the other side of the argument can’t even accept that a stance is important, there is no discussion.
You know, I was about to write “And Todd didn’t realize he was part of that problem” – the problem is that he most likely does. It is the Left and make no mistake, the MSM has completely gone over to the Left and against traditional American values.
