October 2, 2006

Opportunists

It is said that one should never discuss religion or politics in public. I hate being conformist, so here is a bit of both.

Yesterday I posted a number of links to organizations working to protect and expand the rights of sexual freedom for consenting adults.

The sexual freedoms we enjoy are always under attack, and I think it only fair to very frankly discuss exactly who is attacking them.

I should begin this by stating that I am a life long republican. I believe in personal responsibility, the free enterprise system, and a strong national defense. I also believe that government is too large and it spends too much money. I think it needs to shrink in size and scope. Time was that my vision of republicanism was in the mainstream of the party. It no longer is. The party has been taken over by culturally conservative zealots with an agenda to create a theocracy here in America. My wing of the party, the libertarian wing, has been beaten into obscurity and the core values my wing represents only receive mention at election time as republicans are again forced to reach out to the American mainstream.

This trend within the party is shocking to me, I cannot fathom how anyone could think that a theocratic government would be good for America or her citizens. One needs look no further than Saudi Arabia to see how such a government would work.

This conservative right wing, these people who would love to see an American government based upon bible tenants, it's only fair to ask, just who are these people, and how do they behave?

These individuals and this group who seek to limit sexual freedom for everyone, what are their own sexual lives like?

Let's start with organized religion. The Roman Catholic is our nations largest, most influential church. The church has taught for centuries that sexuality was evil, and that the marital bed, with the intention of childbearing, was the only acceptable outlet for sexuality. Any and all other sexual activity is taught to be evil. Women's rights, and women's issues of course take the brunt of the attack on sexuality.

How does this church which views virtually all sexual activity as evil handle the sexuality of it's leaders? A fair question to ask in light of it's teachings I believe. The answer as everyone knows is that it's organization seems to harbor large numbers of child molesters, child molesters who the church does all in it's power to protect from justice when discovered.

Molestation of children, lies, and cover-ups. All this while teaching against the pursuit of sexual pleasure.

Washington State Senator and Spokane Mayor Jim West. Senator West was a right wing politician. As Majority Leader of the Senate he went above and beyond the call of duty in protecting us Washingtonians against the evils of homosexuality by preventing the passage of a bill which would give equal protection under the law to gays and lesbians.

The bill did finally pass after Senator West left our legislature, and went on to peddle his nonsense to the people of Spokane.

Senator West, the man who worked so hard to make sure that it was legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians. It is fair to ask about his own sexuality since he felt that sexuality was a legitimate focus of public debate. So, did his behavior match his words? Of course not. As the good people of Spokane learned, the Senator used public resources to recruit young men into his bed.

Abuse of power, lies, and cover-ups. All this while legislating against sexual freedom for everyone else.

This brings us to the republican of the week, Florida Congressman Mark Foley. Let's take a look at this fellow, and his colleagues.

The Congressman, while fighting for a repressed America, was spending lots of his free time sending sexually explicit emails to underage boys. Not content to only email though, the good Congressman even taught himself how to use instant messaging. One has to wonder if he was a good or a bad one handed typist.

The scandal can't end with Mr. Foley though, let's not forget the republican leadership.

Speaker Hastert knew of Mr. Foleys behavior six months ago and did nothing to stop it. Republican press statements strongly hint that "Top House Republicans" were aware of the email traffic as well, but of course decided to sweep it under the rug in this election year.

To top it all off, what exactly did Mr. Foley do in Congress? Will wonders never cease, he was Chairman of the House Caucus on missing and exploited children.

Molestation, lies, and cover-ups. All while the republican Congress and administration works to keep Americans safe by shutting down pornographic websites and arresting porn video producers.

My rant over, I do want to make it clear that I still strongly believe in traditional republican values. The values of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater. I also want to make it clear that I do believe in a higher power, and take my own spirituality seriously.

I must point out with this post though that the people currently parading themselves as god fearing republicans waging a cultural war against erotic expression of all kinds are neither republicans nor men of god. They are simply opportunists using a gullible minority to further their own selfish drive for power.

Organizations can not function without the support of their membership. It is up to us to clean up our churches, and to clean up our politics. We need to work to ensure that our leaders are good moral people, people who do not molest or otherwise exploit the most vulnerable members of our society while advocating against adult, consensual sexual expression.