Voting for Trump Despite Tarnished Pro-Life Bona Fides

I have been pondering with some concern Edward Feser’s recent post “Trump has put social conservatives in a dilemma”. Feser is a Catholic philosopher whose analyses on matters from the moral to the metaphysical should not be ignored nor taken lightly, and as such it gave me some pause when considering how to vote in the wake of Trump’s softening on pro-life issues. I am not convinced that the word “betrayal” is appropriate to describe this softening, but certainly his attempts to triangulate a “moderate” stance on abortion (and related matters, like IVF) has been demoralizing.

Nevertheless, I believe we who are pro-life should vote for Trump. Let me explain....

Read more

The Moral Slip N Slide

For any who foolishly claim that in the realm of morality the “slippery slope argument” is inherently fallacious, witness:

1859 - “[By] the existence of fœtal life…at the very beginning, at conception itself, we are compelled to believe unjustifiable abortion always a crime.” (Dr. Horatio Storer, “Contributions to Obstetric Jurisprudence”)

1973 - “A person may choose to have an abortion until a fetus becomes viable, [which] means the ability to live outside the womb, which usually happens between 24 and 28 weeks after conception.“ (Justice Blackmun, Roe v. Wade decision)

1990s - “Abortions should be safe, legal, and rare.“ (President Bill Clinton)

Today - “#ShoutYourAbortion… Abortion is normal… This is not a debate." (Feminists)

Read more

His Terrible Swift Sword

This is a story that could be true. God help us!

New York has legalized the killing of the unborn up to birth. As all wicked things done by an erstwhile Christian people, its passing is couched in euphemisms, wreathed by comforting platitudes: they say it’s about protecting women’s rights and access to reproductive healthcare in the face of an uncertain political future. Already there are rumblings in other states for similar legislation. Given the propensity of progressives to always push onward, with no limiting principle, and no destination in mind, but addicted to that narcotic feeling of forward velocity, it is a certainty that many states will pass similar laws.

In the twinkling of an eye, the distant and comforting hope that someday we would overturn Roe v Wade, and allow the States to once again enact anti-abortion laws to protect the unborn from slaughter is rendered irrelevant. By the time we have a Supreme Court honest enough to interpret the Constitution and Laws as written, and courageous enough to strike down that most poorly decided case, the States will have already decided that it is legal to kill the unborn up to birth. Thus, devolving abortion laws to the States will accomplish nothing for the unborn but to subject their lives to the accident of their mother’s address.

But not all States will be so callous. Not all will light the sacrificial fires for Moloch.

So, supposing we do someday overturn Roe v Wade, as surely must happen, just as Dredd Scott eventually was overturned, we will have a world where some states are abortionist, and some are abolitionist. Thus will geographic lines be drawn in the already, perhaps irretrievably, fractured culture we are living in. As the culture in each State is amplified and clarified, we could, in a few decades, arrive again at the precipice of civil war. And the trumpeters will sound a new clarion call to rally for the protection of the unborn, and the new abolitionists will answer the call to eradicate from the earth a barbaric and bloody institution.

And then in this culture war we have all been drafted into we will all of us at least—and at last—know in which direction to shoot.

If You Want Better than Trump, Be Better

When Ted Cruz conceded defeat to Donald Trump during the Republican primaries, I was crestfallen. I was at that time (and really still am) a neophyte conservative, having been raised by Democrats and having sworn off both parties for many years as more or less equally morally objectionable. I liked Cruz because he seemed to me to be the real deal: a true intellectual conservative, a politician who actually believed his principles and would act on them if elected. 

I have since come to understand that if Ted Cruz, or any other of the contenders, had won the nomination Hilary would be president.

Read more