October 25, 2006

The Family Values Party Strikes Again

 

If anyone still doubts the hypocrisy of the Republican Party being the champion of morality, recent events should disabuse remaining hangers-on. Understanding fully the anti-family impact of many Republican economic and social policies takes a little dot connecting. However, appreciating the negative effects of recent scandals takes far less analysis. The real miracle is that people who identify as religious still feel any connection with this party at all.

 

The Foley scandal has dominated the news off and on for some weeks, though as is too often the case, the political “dialogue” and much of the media are obscuring its real moral lessons. These are of course not about being gay, as it has often appeared among some Republicans, especially for the many Log Cabiners, who have been running for cover. Nor even is it mainly about pedophilia, as much as that word is mentioned. Some people unfortunately are ill in ways that victimize others, whether children or teens.

 

These offenses are certainly about sexual harassment, the unethical use of power for sex, and hypocrisy. They also provoke questions about our electoral system that allows such a person to be elected and re-elected for so long. But the most important moral issue seems about the supposedly healthy leadership that permitted the behavior to continue, Catholic Church-style, apparently long after it was discovered.

 

Fixing leadership responsibility does not depend on whether Speaker Hastert knew the facts early on or not. He and his colleagues were in charge. If he didn’t know about these goings on, he clearly should have. In fact all the scurrying around by those folks now, about who will take the ultimate fall, is further evidence of the low personal-survival-at-all-costs ethical standards that created the problem in the first place.

 

The people who allowed Congressman Foley to continue harmfully victimizing others, in order to avoid political damage to themselves, then tripped over each other in showing no mercy to their former colleague once the truth was out. They were willing to throw him to the wolves, without one ounce of compassion for him or his family. Is this the Christian way? Would Jesus have approved, of allowing either the victimization to continue or the brutalization of the victimizer, after he fell on his political sword and abandoned his career?  Perhaps some of those involved think that crucifying Congressman Foley was the way to redeem their Christian credentials from this sordid affair.

 

As we well know, the Foley scandal is not alone. In the case of former congressmen Gerry Studds and Dan Crane some years ago, a combination of political realities – and perhaps differences in values at the time – resulted in both congressmen retaining their positions. Studds was re-elected and Crane not. One important difference between then and now is that issue was referred to the House Ethics Committee, composed of Republicans and Democrats, rather than remaining a closely held secret of the leadership.

 

Scandals in other areas have been occurring for some time - from the illegal political abuse of power by Tom Delay to the participation of several congressmen, again primarily Republicans, in the illegal financial dealings of Abramoff and company. Other business dealings of this administration, such as no-bid Iraq contracts with the vice president’s former company and subsequent financial discrepancies, would probably also qualify, but they may require a Democratic Congress to explore, given the low ethical standards of this one, and the loyalty of its members to the administration.

 

Even without including the lies leading up to the Iraq War, the outing of an active CIA operative and other questionable ethical actions, some would say the last six years of Republican dominance has been the most scandal-ridden and unethical period since Iran-Contra, or perhaps Watergate. Oh, did those also occur under the leadership of Republicans?

 

Of course we should be fair enough to include scandals also on the Democratic side. After all, President Clinton’s White House sexual escapades, and failure to own up, forced the Republican Congress to tie up our country for weeks in impeachment proceedings. The imminent danger to our moral way of life clearly gave them no choice. As a result important work of the country was put on hold while we demonstrated our strange moral priorities to the rest of the world.

 

The Democratic leadership must also share in the responsibility for the ironic support of religious people for the Republican Party, by not having provided a compelling vision for the many Americans who are feeling the spiritual void of these times. As Michael Lerner points out in his book, “The Left Hand of G-d”, progressives have largely abdicated the spiritual agenda to the Republican Right, perhaps since the days of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. For the moment, the hypocrisy of the Republican political connection to religion must continue to be exposed.