It’s like Clint Eastwood has come to town and all the bad guys are hiding under the tables or in closets. President Obama is striking down one stupid rule after another his predecessor left behind. It’s a martial arts level kung fu pen-fest, signing (or consigning) the detritus of ignorance from the last eight years into the dustbin of…
Well, his overturned the international gag rule concerning abortion information. He’s undoing the restrictions on stem cell research. He has ordered Gitmo shut down within a year and a panel to look into what to do with the detainees.
Before the vacillations of moral outrage erupt over the gag rule overturn, it should be considered how absurd and cowardly a ban on talking about something actually is. And I don’t mean from a national security perspective. Clearly, some information is sensitive in that sense and should not be publicly disseminated. But in the case of the gag rule, we’re talking about something that is, for all intents and purposes, Public Knowledge. If you know what to look for, anyone can find this information and not be arrested for having it. Yet grown men and women have been constrained from talking about it in the performance of their duties as doctors and nurses.
What part of “choice” do the enemies of choice not understand?
Anyway, not to beat a dead horse, but for the moment those days are over. What needs to happen now is for a sensible policy concerning reproductive rights to come to the fore as quickly as possible. Obama declared that his philosophy is to reduce the need for abortion. I’m with that. But that means offering people options. Abstinence Only is one option out of many, and certainly not for everyone.
Things will only get harder now. He’s declared himself willing and able to follow through on campaign promises. His enemies will begin to retrench and we had all better be prepared for the circus when all this hits the courts.
Obama won by eight million votes. Granted, he had a major victory electorally, but demographics shift tectonically, and that eight million vote majorty—twice the size of Bush’s last (presumed) victory—is not that big a buffer. If Obama’s programs for the economy move forward in a clear and convincing manner and things improve there, he may well get to do the rest of his agenda without a lot of fuss. But we can’t bank on that. The economy is a mess for two reasons—it was heading for a crash anyway because it’s been running on ether for a long time and Bush policies exaccerbated the results of the crumble. Even is Bush had run a fiscally decent administration, the downturn was looming. Consumerism is not a sensible engine for economy stability because it suffers from cyclic and inevitable exhaustian: people can’t buy that much all the time, forever and ever. Sometimes you need a break. And that doesn’t even start on the problems with resource and energy costs.
I’m keeping my opinion on the optimistic side for now. I think there’s an iron will in the man which will bowl over all but the most entrenched and insidious opposition. Ignorance alone may not do it. So we have to watch out for the really smart ones who know enough about their subject to throw the kinds of roadblocks in his path that seem to make sense.
Keep an eye on John Boehner, House minority leader. He’s laying the groundwork for a nasty trap Obama could walk into. He’s coming across all reasonable at the moment. He has a knee-jerk Republican stance on tax increases and he supported No Child Left Behind. He also supports school vouchers, but calls them “opportunity scholarships.” I believe he is also opposed to stem cell research and, being an Ohio Republican, is doubtless a pro-lifer. I could be wrong about him, but…
In any event, kudos to Mr. Obama. He seems aware that he has to beat the ravening mob to the table with better information in order to get a jump on the Ignorance Posse. Let’s hope he can keep up the pace. I’ll give it six months before the Republicans start trying to filibuster his proposals.
It’s not over yet.