Posted under Conservatism & Culture & Obama & Pro-Life
News about President-to-be Obama’s planned agenda for the immediate future is certainly making for a lot of speculation in political circles. Indeed, during his campaign Obama made a lot of promises to the various interest groups who helped him reach the White House. Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to write a series of postings about what we ought to expect from the Obama administration. Today’s posting will feature his agenda on social issues.
The list I’ve compiled below is by no means exhaustive. These are the major planks of the liberal social agenda which President-to-be Obama will likely sign into law:
1. He will reverse many of the executive orders of the Bush administration, including those dealing with abortion and other right-to-life issues. For example, he will reverse the so-called Mexico City Policy, thus reinstating funding to organizations which perform abortions in foreign countries. Granted, I’m not a big fan of executive orders in general because I believe that only Congress can make law and set policy, but this will be a setback for the right-to-life movement nonetheless.
2. Obama has promised to sign the “Freedom of Choice Act” which would gut virtually all regulations at the state level dealing with abortion. In other words, all of the hard work done at the state level by pro-life groups would be nullified with the stroke of a pen. This legislation is blatantly unconstitutional and further sets the precedent for nationalizing these social issues in a way that hasn’t been done before. Not only would this legislation be a death-blow to the pro-life movement, but it would further erode federalism as well.
3. Obama also promised to sign into law a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which was passed during the Clinton administration. It allows the states the authority not to recognize same-sex “marriages” from another state, therefore giving the states more sovereignty over these judicial acts. DOMA was basically Congress using their authority under Article IV, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution which allows Congress to regulate “the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.” It was a good compromise at best and even a lot of Democrats supported it.
However, if this new Congress does vote to repeal DOMA and Obama signs it, then the situation would revert back to the “Full Faith and Credit” clause (that is, Clause 1 of Section 1) which would force every state in the Union to recognize same-sex “marriages” performed in any state which allows it. In other words, this would be a nationwide legalization of same-sex “marriage.” Again, federalism flies out the window.
4. Federal funding for Planned Parenthood will increase like never before. Under President Bush, we saw record level amounts of Federal subsidies going to Planned Parenthood and we should expect more of the same under Obama. Aside from the fact that these subsidies are unconstitutional, Planned Parenthood remains the nation’s largest provider of abortions.
5. Aside from the possible repeal of DOMA, the homosexual lobby will score huge legislative gains in other areas as well. So-called “hate crime” legislation will be passed which will add homosexuals and other “sexual minorities” to the list of groups covered by current “hate crime” laws. This will be yet another stepping stone toward eliminating free speech and religious liberty by targeting social conservatives, Christians, and others who are morally opposed to homosexuality. Right now under Canada’s “hate crime” laws, someone can be fined thousands of dollars for making public statements against homosexuality or quoting certain Bible passages.
Another piece of legislation likely to pass is the “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” (ENDA), another unconstitutional act which would force employers–yes, even churches and religious organizations–to hire homosexuals. Of all the pieces of legislation I’ve talked about in this posting, expect to see the “hate crime” bill and ENDA pass very easily. The dangers posed by these two pieces of legislation are not readily apparent to most people as they don’t actually take the time to research the full implications.
Looking at all of the proposed changes on these social issues under the Obama administration, America is going to take a dramatic shift to the Left in terms of policy. Some conservatives are predicting that passing any number of these pieces of legislation will cause a huge backlash (something akin to 1994), but I disagree. I don’t think most Americans really care about social issues anymore. As many pundits have pointed out, the vast majority of people have their minds focused on economic issues right now. Given that most younger people have readily accepted same-sex “marriage” and abortion-on-demand, I don’t really see a future in which social conservatism will remain a viable political force.
ERIC on 10 Dec 2008 at 8:09 pm #
This is the stuff I care about.
I agree that Obama is going to be a disaster for social conservatives like me.
I also agree that social conservativism is on life support due to the youth.
Harold Crews on 10 Dec 2008 at 11:36 pm #
This agenda if he acts on it is tailor made to make secession a more viable or even necessary solution.
T. Chan on 11 Dec 2008 at 4:38 am #
If federalism is dead and secession is not viable for most areas, what can be done?
roho on 11 Dec 2008 at 1:21 pm #
The Eurosocialization of America is at the doorsteps. And the youth of Amerika can’t see the destruction of the European cultures, while their marxist professors tell them that all is well………The very single issue of “Hate Crimes” escalating to “Hate Speech” escalating to “Hate Thought” should horrify our youth! (Do they think that protests and demonstrations will be allowed in that format?) Do they understand that Germans are now being “IMPRISONED” for only questioning the original degree of atrocities of WWII?
Social Conservatives must abandon the Cult of Consumerism, and also see the need to save our culture and heritage more than an existing lifestyle.
Weaver on 12 Dec 2008 at 2:43 pm #
Surely there’s more to the term “social conservatism” than merely this.
Economic conservatism is surely dead; The poor want government aid.
Social conservatism is all that’s left.
Weaver on 12 Dec 2008 at 2:45 pm #
To put it bluntly: socialism is in.
Josh Dermer on 12 Dec 2008 at 6:16 pm #
Weaver:
I did not mean to imply that “social conservatism” only applies to the issues of abortion and the homosexual agenda. That being said, those are the “big two” which seem to serve as the litmus test for determining the health of social conservatism in general. Granted, I don’t believe that social conservatism is dead as a matter of culture, but it’s definitely dead as a political force. That was the point I was trying to make.
David Allyn on 13 Dec 2008 at 3:16 pm #
Weaver – that is also putting it concisely and sadly, it appears that that is exactly what most Americans want. That is why Obaama did so well – he has promised to plunder one group of people [read - middile class and well to do white, Euro-Americans] for the benefit of lazy blacks and other minorities using the force of government. Very simple.