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TEDDY OF CHAPPAQUIDDICK, MORALIST?

BY Dorothy Anne Seese
dottie@politicalusa.com

1/19/2000

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The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJD) confirmation hearings on John Ashcroft's nomination for US Attorney General are getting nasty, with Senator Ted Kennedy (D.Mass) leading the charge as the defender of Americanism and the rights of our citizens.  Teddy of Chappaquiddick?  Defender of the nation and the faith of our founding fathers?  I don't know that Ted Kennedy has demonstrated any faith in anything at all other than his Kennedy lineage and the money to absolve him from any and all wrongs, including the infamous Chappaqiddick incident.

Yet at the SJD hearings on Mr. Ashcroft's fitness to serve as the Attorney General in President-elect George W. Bush's cabinet, it is Teddy of Chappaquiddick who is most severely and vituperatively questioning the integrity of a man whose personal and religious convictions he opposes.

Right behind Ted Kennedy's onslaught is that of the liberal press, followed closely by voters who are saying Bush's nominees are "out of the mainstream."  Out of what mainstream?  The mainstream of slush and unprincipled conduct that has made America a prosperous sewer where even broadcast television is unfit to watch?  Where people cry out for protection against moral undermining of their children via the media and yet demand total moral relativity for themselves?

If we are going to accept the notion that America's mainstream has been Clintonized to where "no principles" is the underlying concept of freedom, then America cannot long remain free.

Freedom is not the liberty to do as you please, but the privilege of doing that which is lawful and proper under the charter of our nation.  Upholding the Constitution of the United States, even where judicial interpretation has de facto amended it, is a job requiring principles of the highest caliber.  This is truly the meaning of "the rule of law."

This is what one newspaper cited as fears of John Ashcroft:

                 "Ashcroft's personal convictions as a deeply religious, conservative
              Republican have triggered an outcry of opposition from civil rights and
              women's groups..."

Callers to Phoenix talk-radio, which is global via its website, have expressed fear that "the South will rule again."  The South once ruled?  Somewhere all known history books seem to have overlooked that little gem.

What's bothering women's groups is that they want their abortion-on-demand and no one in office who might oppose it.  Women can accept Janet Reno and her gross violations of human rights via use of federal force, but never their personal rights to kill their unborn.  As to the civil rights fears, John Ashcroft's religious convictions do not ... repeat ... do not pose a threat to equal protection for all Americans under the law.  Mr. Ashcroft's record indicates he will uphold the law even when he disagrees with it.  This is very similar to those who detest the IRS but who still pay their taxes in spite of opposition to the IRS.

Americans have been calling for principle, and now via the media the departure of one of our most unprincipled presidents is being lamented as though conservatism is destined to ruin America. We are now beyond being a two-party nation, we've become a very two-faced one.

People have cried for more integrity during the Clinton years, and now they're shrinking back in fear when integrity is interpreted to pose a threat to their individual preferences, special interests or corrupt lifestyles.  The future of America's children and of the nation itself should be subordinate, in too many minds, to America's hedonism and virally-infected sense of moral uprightness.

Unless the Senate Judiciary Committee can come up with a better defender of the American morality than Teddy Kennedy, with his vicious tirades against someone who has far higher standards than his own, Mr. Ashcroft should be confirmed as the new Attorney General.

And it is quite strange that over the past thirty-five years, a nation that once upheld the Judeo-Christian ethic as the standard for personal and public behavior, including media content, is now scared to death of it!

When people want to become a law unto themselves and bring positions of authority down to the lowest common denominator, they are the ones subverting the national interest, the future of the children and the direction of the nation's future.  When the people so disrespect the Constitution as to be willing to discard it for the sake of personal lifestyle, they are de facto subversives.  And yes, there are people ... voters ... who have expressed the notion that the Constitution is now out of date!

It was against just such popular whims that our founding fathers created both the Constitution and a federal republic rather than a strict democracy.  The will of some of the people is simply too fickle and unstable to trust with the future of the entire nation or the rights of others.  And, perhaps, the founding fathers anticipated such elected officials as Teddy of Chappaquiddick.

No generation is without its evils. This generation is no exception.

© Dorothy Anne Seese, 2024

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