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Commentary - Mar 24, 2005 - Printable Version
- Welcome to the “Culture of Life”
by Jeff Buckley
The heart-wrenching saga of Terri Schiavo reached its nadir last Sunday. Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any more ridiculous than Congress’ poor attempt at an end run around Florida court rulings by calling a woman in a persistent vegetative state to testify before them, a bovine excrement bombshell of titanic proportions was dropped and “ridiculous” suddenly became, “Oh my God, you’ve got to be @#!$% kidding me!!!” By pushing through 11th hour legislation to transfer jurisdiction of Terri Schiavo’s family’s case to federal court, the GOP controlled Congress and President Bush have succeeded in three things: Setting precedent to trample states’ rights on a whim, mobilizing the religious right around a springboard issue that will surely spill over into every other facet of the “right to life” debate, and kicking open the door to further challenges and assaults on civil liberties and reproductive rights.
Regardless of what you think of the motives and intentions of Michael Schiavo or the Schindlers, upwards of twenty-five state judges’ rulings in Florida have supported Terri Schiavo’s right to die. Forget the fact that this is a family matter that, if arbitrated outside of the family, should be handled by state courts. All of that is now as dead as disco. Any other governor might have had the common decency to stand up to this kind of egregious outrage. But, then again, other governors aren’t Jeb Bush.
To say that what transcended last Sunday night was a pathetic display of political pandering is an understatement. Congressman after congressman mispronounced and butchered the last name of the woman they proclaimed to be championing the cause of during debates on the bill. Decency was traded for sound bytes, common sense was traded for potential votes, and state sovereignty was traded to further an extremist agenda not held by a majority of Americans. It was almost entertaining until you realized that your tax dollars were footing the bill to reconvene congress for this emergency session. It was almost amusing until you realized that real people, in real pain, were being openly and flagrantly exploited as political pawns. The same group of Republicans who voted to cut Medicaid, limit medical malpractice lawsuits, and make it nearly impossible for families struggling with medical bills due to similar tragedies to file for bankruptcy are speaking on behalf of a woman who’s name they couldn’t bother to learn how to pronounce correctly.
Even President Bush got in on the grandstanding. Citing a need to “err on the side of life,” he cut a vacation short for the first time in his presidency and flew back to Washington in order to sign the bill into law at the earliest possible moment. The same man who continued to read about goats with a deer-in-headlights look on his face while the Twin Towers burned managed to drop everything he was doing in an instant and fly halfway across the country to advocate for a woman whom he felt was having her 14th amendment rights trampled; a woman who, even before George and his cronies decided to interject themselves, has probably received more due process than any animal, plant, or mineral in the entire history of American jurisprudence. Terri Schiavo, if anything, is the poster child for why the 14th Amendment works.
President Bush wants to “err on the side of life?” I’ve got 152 Texas death row inmates, at least 1,500 American flag-draped coffins, and, by one estimate, as many as 100,000 slaughtered Iraqi civilians that would say differently.
This is the same man who laughingly mocked the pleas of death row inmate Carla Faye Tucker. This is the same man who, as governor of Texas, signed The Advanced Directives Act into law back in 1999 that permitted hospitals to terminate life-supporting measures on patients when there is no chance of recovery or if the family cannot pay for care; even if it goes against the wishes of the patient and their family. The law also grants first say to the spouse regarding medical decisions of incapacitated persons (A point noticeably absent from the President’s notorious selective memory).
Yet, none of the blatant hypocrisy matters. “Do as I say, not as I do,” has never been more prevalent. The religious right, like a moth to a flame, will draw close to whomever can invoke God the most in speeches and debate, regardless of the utter inconsistencies in their past actions. These are the ravenous packs that, last November, turned out in droves to support the hypocrite who invoked God’s name the most of all. These are the people, who, arguably, made the biggest impact of the vote. These are the people being pandered to.
George’s “Culture of Life” is now front and center and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Expect the knee-jerk legislation. Expect the holy rolling. Expect all reason to be thrown out the window. Expect the situation to progress past even the point of, “Oh my God, you’ve got to be @#!$% kidding me!!!”
“Culture of Life” will soon replace “Weapons of Mass Destruction” as the war cry to be rallied around behind by the vocal minority who wishes to defy the will of the true majority and justify the erosion of our fundamental rights. Those who don’t buy into the president’s plan to stack our courts with right wing judges, limit our liberties into oblivion, and turn the “moral” clock back 500 years will, of course, be labeled as “liberals.” Those who question the place of religion in government will be deemed “heretics.” Those who want their loved one’s wishes to die in dignity will be called “selfish.” Those who think that women should exercise complete control over their reproductive lives will be branded “murderers.”
George will “err on the side of life” when it’s convenient to him. George believes in the sanctity of marriage unless it’s politically advantageous to oppose someone who dares to assert the same spousal rights in Florida that he signed into Texas law 6 years ago. George is for smaller government unless it’s his agenda being steamrolled over state sovereignty. George is against “activist” judges unless a judge overturns years of precedent and case law in favor of his narrow view of how things should be.
George and the GOP have, once again, proven that they don’t give a damn about you or me. And they certainly don’t give a damn about Terri Schiavo.
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