Since when did Republicans become so fond of centralized state power? The BGCs, (Big Government Conservatives) are at it again, this time both in Florida and in Washington, scrambling to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo -- a woman the vast majority of medical experts say is beyond comprehension, uncognitive and in a persistent vegetative state that cannot be reversed. Her husband, who may or not be a wife-dumping, new-woman-finding scumbag, says he knows her wishes. Her parents disagree, and want her kept on a feeding tube for ever and ever, amen.
Throw in the right-to-life crowd, including Operation Rescue alum Randall Terry, and you've got all the makings of a "hot mess" as they say down here in Flawrida.
This has become a showdown between legislative power and judicial power, with Congress attempting to sidestep a Florida judge's order by issuing a subpoena demanding that the family -- including Terri Schiavo -- to appear before them. They know that's impossible, but it sure as hell was a clever way to buy time. Now the judge in the case, Judge Greer, has reasserted his order -- and he seems to mean business. I suspect Greer is no hanging judge -- he is asserting a judicial prerogative, and testing the very important question of what the legislator can and cannot ignore when a court speaks.
The problem is that legislators cannot pass a law that basically says: "Feed Terri Schiavo. They tried that in 2003, and the courts tossed it out as blatantly unconstitutional.
To pass a bill that has any chance of being applied in Terri's case, the politicians have to come up with one that applies to all of us. And so legislators are working on measures that could force family members to maintain a relative in a vegetative state if they could not produce some kind of directive from that relative stating wishes to the contrary. Another proposal has vague wording about an "interested party" being allowed to intervene.
This is a frightening intrusion into the most personal and gut-wrenching decisions a family can make. Do you know how your spouse feels about being kept alive in a vegetative state? Of course you do, even if you don't have a living will to prove it. Now, imagine if you were complying with your spouse's wishes to die in peace and the government forces you to keep him alive in some under-funded Medicaid nursing home.
There is a political agenda here. Religious conservatives have filed legal challenges in the past to block parents from making end-of-life decisions about their children, even when the parents were in agreement. One of the groups that has done this, Operation Rescue, was founded by Randall Terry, who is pushing the Schiavo legislation.
This is insanity. Suddenly, the GOP stands for intervening all over the map -- around the world to install "democracies" and sprinkle freedom across the earth like Easter candy, at home to peek over your shoulder at the library, to pray with you (in school, in court, and silently as the Ten Commandments stare down at you in government buildings), to fund your church's programs, to teach your kids that God created the earth (making Sunday school so passe), to tell your local school board how to run your neighborhood elementary, publicly spank your kids sports heroes for using steroids, and now even on your (or your loved one's) death bed.
And this isn't about the right to kill your spouse. Glenn Beck tried that tack on his radio show this morning, offering Michael Schiavo millions of dollars in pledged cash and prizes, including a honeymoon package for him and his new fiancee, "if you just don't kill your wife." (honestly, can't tell if he's serious or not, but it was so creative I had to mention it). Look -- Michael Schiavo may be an asshole -- he clearly hasn't been the ever-faithful husband holding onto the love of his life. But he is her husband, and has the right to interpret her wishes. Once you let the government put their foot in that door, they'll be running not just your whole life, but your death, too.
For God's sake, does "conservatism" even exists anymore?
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
