WARNING: The logic of this post bobs and weaves a little, but Blueskygirl trusts you'll get her gist.
Gary Johnson, Republican, presidential candidate and former governor of New Mexico, squared off against Iowa's Family Leader "marriage vow" pledge that was circulated to Republican presidential hopefuls a couple of weeks ago, by producing this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCu3lZMvFcs
Blueskygirl is not suddenly all Gary Johnson, and she is also well aware that the Founding Fathers weren't including the African people they owned, nor the women they were married to, when they said that all men are created equal.
Still, the video gets at the insanity of the Bohners, Buerkles, Cantors, Cains, Palins, Bachmanns and McConnells of this world. Gary Johnson is to be commended for seeing through the politico-religious ideology.
Last week the pledge was immediately signed by Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, who apparently wanted to be first to affirm to the world how deep is their racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, fear of the First Amendment, and general hatefulness toward anyone not like them. (see below for the preamble and pledge, in its original form as it was signed by Bachmann and Santorum)
The core values for which progressives and "libs" fight are basic to human rights.
So, why do people like Ann Marie Buerkle and her Tea Party cohort work hard every day to make American values seem so complicated and limiting? Is it genetic? Psychiatric? Simpleminded? Or is it money?
All Blueskygirl really knows is that Buerkle has been like this since at least 1977 when she became publicly obsessed with limiting women's right to choose.
You might think she would trust women, since she is one. You would be wrong.
THE MARRIAGE VOW
[as put forth by THE FAMiLY LEADER's leader Bob Vander Plaats in Iowa]
A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMiLY1
Faithful monogamy is at the very heart of a designed and purposeful order – as conveyed by Jewish and Christian Scripture, by Classical Philosophers, by Natural Law, and by the American Founders – upon which our concepts of Creator-endowed human rights, racial justice and gender equality all depend.2
Enduring marital fidelity between one man and one woman protects innocent children, vulnerable women, the rights of fathers, the stability of families, and the liberties of all American citizens under our republican form of government. Our exceptional and free society simply cannot endure without the transmission of personal virtue, from one generation to the next, by means of nurturing, nuclear families comprised of sexually-faithful husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. We acknowledge and regret the widespread hypocrisy of many who defend marriage yet turn a blind eye toward the epidemic of infidelity and the anemic condition of marriages in their own communities. Unmistakably, the Institution of Marriage in America is in great crisis:
Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA‟s first African-American President.3 [this section was removed after an immediate outcry, but not before Bachmann and Santorum signed the pledge]
LBJ‟s 1965 War on Poverty was triggered in part by the famous “Moynihan Report” finding that the black out-of-wedlock birthrate had hit 26%; today, the white rate exceeds that, the overall rate is 41%, and over 70% of African-American babies are born to single parents4 – a prime sociological indicator for poverty, pathology and prison regardless of race or ethnicity. 5
About one million U.S. children suffer through divorce each year – the outcome of about half of all first marriages and about 60 percent of remarriages, disproportionately affecting economically-vulnerable families.6
The taxpayer-borne social costs of family fragmentation exceeds $112 billion per year, especially when all costs to the justice system are recognized.7
Social protections, especially for women and children, have been evaporating as we have collectively “debased the currency” of marriage. This debasement continues as a function of adultery; “quickie divorce;” physical and verbal spousal abuse; non-committal co-habitation; exemplary infidelity and “unwed cheating” among celebrities, sports figures and politicians; anti-scientific bias which holds, in complete absence of empirical proof, that non-heterosexual inclinations are genetically determined, irresistible and akin to innate traits like race, gender and eye color; as well as anti-scientific bias which holds, against all empirical evidence, that homosexual behavior in particular, and sexual promiscuity in general, optimizes individual or public health. 8
The Candidate Vow:
Therefore, in any elected or appointed capacity by which I may have the honor of serving our fellow citizens in these United States, I the undersigned do hereby solemnly vow* to honor and to cherish, to defend and to uphold, the Institution of Marriage as only between one man and one woman. I vow* to do so through my:
Personal fidelity to my spouse.9
Respect for the marital bonds of others.10
Official fidelity to the U.S. Constitution, supporting the elevation of none but faithful constitutionalists as judges or justices.11
Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage – faithful monogamy between one man and one woman – through statutory-, bureaucratic-, or court-imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex, etc.12
Recognition of the overwhelming statistical evidence that married people enjoy better health, better sex, longer lives, greater financial stability, and that children raised by a mother and a father together experience better learning, less addiction, less legal trouble, and less extramarital pregnancy. 13
Support for prompt reform of uneconomic, anti-marriage aspects of welfare policy, tax policy, and marital/divorce law, and extended “second chance” or “cooling-off” periods for those seeking a “quickie divorce.” 14
Earnest, bona fide legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at the federal and state levels.15
Steadfast embrace of a federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which protects the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman in all of the United States. 16
Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy – our next generation of American children – from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.17
Support for the enactment of safeguards for all married and unmarried U.S. Military and National Guard personnel, especially our combat troops, from inappropriate same-gender or opposite-gender sexual harassment, adultery or intrusively intimate commingling among attracteds (restrooms, showers, barracks, tents, etc.); plus prompt termination of military policymakers who would expose American wives and daughters to rape or sexual harassment, torture, enslavement or sexual leveraging by the enemy in forward combat roles.18
Rejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.19
Recognition that robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security. 20
Commitment to downsizing government and the enormous burden upon American families of the USA‟s $14.3 trillion public debt, its $77 trillion in unfunded liabilities, its $1.5 trillion federal deficit, and its $3.5 trillion federal budget.21
Fierce defense of the First Amendment‟s rights of Religious Liberty and Freedom of Speech22, especially against the intolerance of any who would undermine law-abiding American citizens and institutions of faith and conscience for their adherence to, and defense of, faithful heterosexual monogamy.
No comments:
Post a Comment