One of the strangest arguments in defense of the Obama Administration’s demand that Catholic institutions buy birth control is the notion that since most Catholics privately use birth control, it’s okay to make the Church’s charitable arms pay for it.
Comment threads all over the InterTubes are littered with the assertion that “98% of Catholics use birth control,” so this makes the administration’s diktat perfectly okay.
But what about the liberal concern for minorities?
For a bunch of folks who are ostensibly all about diversity, the modern left sure does love itself some authoritarian conformity, doesn’t it?
Old and Busted: Respect the cultures and beliefs of minorities, especially if they are small.
New Hotness: Conform to the majority, cultist freaks!
The whole point of the Constitution was to limit the power of government and protect the rights of individuals. The Bill of Rights extended these protections even more, seeking to prevent the “tyranny of the majority” from oppressing the minority.
For the Obama Administration, thought, the fact that a minority is being oppressed is a feature, not a bug. In this bearded-Spock world, the new mantra is “the wants of the many (voters) far outweigh the rights of the few, or the one.” (Yes, I said “wants” because birth control is a want, not a need. You don’t need free pills to not have children, you simply have to refrain from the act of conceiving them.)
I think that there are several reasons Obama and his minions are pushing this.
The first is that they love the power of telling other people what to do. That’s just a given.
The second is that they particularly like sticking it to the Catholic Church.
The third is that they get to sing the virtues of Population Control, something the left has never given up on and is once again touting as the Solution To All The World’s Problems.
For the dedicated liberal, it’s still 1972 and the Population Bomb is going to go off any minute now. The fact that affluent American women don’t receive cases of The Pill for free is now the Greatest Injustice Evah. What, you might have to pay $30 out of pocket for some form of birth control? Patriarchal oppression!
Seriously, that’s the way these people think.
If you think about it, it is the perfect inversion of the old “Keep Your Laws Off My Body” argument. For the new liberals, the federal government should control everything about your body. It was never about individual freedom, it was about power and control.
Further proof – if any was needed - that liberals are really authoritarians at heart.
Yup. Giving people access to birth control is all about controlling them. That's how it works. Heaven forbid that people should have access to affordable birth control. The gov't isn't making you use it, it's just making sure that it's covered under your employer's health care plan. You don't have to be employed. Or even employed with a health care plan.
Also, while I too prefer the notion of simply refraining from making babies, it's really not an option for some people. It's bizarre to wrap one's mind around, but sometimes people have sex without enthusiastic consent, in order to gain something else. But hey, so long as it's not your problem, right?
Posted by: Marcus Aurelius | February 20, 2012 at 11:39 AM