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By Scott Tibbs, June 12, 2010
The American Family Association of Indiana sent the following editorial to their e-mail list this week. This excellent editorial is reposted with permission from the AFA-IN.
There is a disturbing item this week from the Weekly Standard entitled, “More on Mitch Daniels’ Proposed ‘Truce’ on Social Issues.”
The Standard has been following the Governor as a possible Presidential candidate in 2012 for his admirable handling of state government in the midst of a national economic disaster. There is good reason for such an article. More and more eyes are turning to Governor Daniels who is doing exactly what needs to be done fiscally in this “great recession.” He is making hard choices in the midst of a crisis that are a completely opposite contrast to how President Obama appears to be fiddling while the nation burns down. You have a failed bigger government Keynesian spending model in Washington, verses a lower tax, less spending supply side model in Indiana of which many people are now taking notice.
As part of the article, the Governor told the Standard’s Andy Furguson “the next president would need to call a truce on social issues” implying that such concerns should be set aside while the economic mess and fiscal irresponsibility problems are cleaned up.
As a follow-up to this comment at an event at the Heritage Foundation, another Standard reporter asked a question to see if the Governor was saying that social issues should be “de-emphasized” or actually “not acted upon.” The reporter asked if he were president would Daniels reinstate Ronald Reagan’s “Mexico City Policy” preventing US tax dollars from funding abortions overseas. The Governor’s answer was a disheartening “I don’t know.”
This is the policy that President Obama repealed with an executive order in a matter of minutes inside his very first few hours in office in January of last year. It was a brazen pro-abortion move that Gallup Polling found had only 35% of American’s support. Yet, for whatever reason, the political left doesn’t get weak kneed and queasy about their divisive and minority-held support of their agenda for social issues. They move ahead in matters like this and don’t ever look back. Polling on abortion funding in the health care law was equally low and yet, it was rammed through without ever any talk from their leaders of a truce on the promotion of abortion.
I understand in one sense what the Governor is saying. I, too, have told the media that fiscal bankruptcy is one of the biggest dangers facing our nation today. Yet, it is easy to talk of truce when you’re not really all that engaged in the battle to protect faith, family, marriage and the unborn in the first place. IF this were actually a wise strategy, it would have more credibility if the call were coming from someone like James Dobson, Tony Perkins or Don Wildmon, leaders who have dedicated their entire lives to the defense of the family and the values that uphold it. Unfortunately, with the exception of signing a couple of pro-life bills that made it to his desk early in his administration, Mitch Daniels practically called a truce on most social issues in Indiana as soon as he became our governor.
Once again, Republican leaders need to look at President Ronald Reagan. As you will recall, President Reagan took the nation from the brink of economic disaster with unemployment numbers similar to today's combined with double-digit inflation and interest rates as well. He accomplished this while always standing for faith, family and life. Oh, and he did another thing at the same time that many people thought was impossible. He won the Cold War after years of defeat, retreat, MAD and Détente. In other words, Reagan could walk and chew gum at the same time, and he did it with a Democrat controlled House and Senate (for most of his Presidency).
If there is one thing Mitch Daniels has proven as Governor, it is that he is a remarkably capable leader and gifted administrator. I believe that if he is in the Oval Office in January of 2013, (he would quite possibly have a Republican House as well) he too could multi-task, just like Reagan did and address our economic concerns as well as the numerous social problems, most of which ultimately lead to a growth in government anyway. But, he has to want in his heart to do both of those things . . . and sadly that has never seemed to be part of his agenda as a leader.
As for AFA of Indiana, we don’t participate in truces when it comes to the defense of life, marriage, faith and family. After all, if one is truly pro-life and pro-marriage, how can you in good conscience ever set aside your principles to knowingly allow the death of unborn children or the destruction of marriages and the endangering of women and children? I have pledged that as long as I am its Executive Director, AFA of Indiana will fight to our last penny, until the Lord closes our doors, to defend life, faith, family and freedom, regardless of who is in the State House, the White House, (be it a fellow Hoosier or not) or what other problems we face. AFA of Indiana will never surrender. We will never quit. We will constantly encourage leaders to lead on these vitally important issues, and we will always speak up for your values against mistaken friends and intentional foes alike. |
Many thanks to the AFA-IN for allowing me to post this.
See my editorial on Mitch Daniels' proposed "truce" from earlier this week.
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