Robert Edge Pine's portrait of the patriot Robert Morris, ca.1785
What was the Obama administration up to this past week? With events in the Middle East and Libya deteriorating apace, and Somali pirates murdering U.S. citizens, the major news from the administration consisted of Eric Holder’s announcement that the Justice Department will no longer fight in court against state efforts to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and that the office of the White House social secretary is to be occupied by a gay rights activist.
Clearly, Obama’s 2012 presidential bid is in full swing, and the barely post-adolescent strategists in his reelection war room have embarked on a calculated effort to harden factional lines in the Republican Party by throwing “social issues” into the media spotlight.
All the more reason that the most talented and energetic Republican leaders should step forward now and announce for the White House. We need a field of tough and smart candidates, with the guts and intellectual depth to rally a now-energized populace around the truth that there can be no solution to America’s deepening fiscal crisis separated from a solution to the horrible moral and social crisis facing our nation.
Rep. Mike Pence, the Indiana Republican who entered last week’s recent amendment to House federal budget legislation stripping Planned Parenthood of $360 million in taxpayer handouts, has made it clear what place he thinks social issues have in the party and in the election.
He made these remarks before the GOP sweep in last November's elections, and it seems that the candidates who also expressed this view did just fine at the polls:
“Now I know some say that Republicans should stay away from such issues …that the American people are focused on jobs and spending and our movement would do well to stand aside, bank the win and return to fight after this fiscal and economic crisis has passed. But we do not live in a world where an American leader can just focus on our financial ledger. A political party that would govern this great nation must be able to handle more than one issue at a time. We must focus on our fiscal crisis and support our troops. We must work to create jobs and protect innocent human life."
Pence continued, "To those who say we should focus on cutting spending, I say ‘Ok, let’s start by denying all federal funding for abortion at home and abroad! Stop funding research that destroys human embryos in the name of science, and let’s deny any and all funding to Planned Parenthood of America.’"
“We must not remain silent when great moral battles are being waged. Those who would have us ignore the battle being fought over life … have forgotten the lessons of history. As in the days of a House divided, America’s darkest moments have come when economic arguments trumped moral principles. Men and women, we must demand, here and now, that the leaders of the Republican Party stand for life … without apology."
How do you think a fellow like this would do in a nationally televised debate against Barak Obama? Get an idea of how such an event might shape up here.
Pence says he doesn’t want to run for President. This is understandable. For a serious patriot, the job is one of total personal sacrifice. Robert Morris, no doubt, did not want to spend his entire personal fortune to finance the War of Independence, but he did so anyway, and victory was secured. So there is really no telling what Pence might do, if called upon to serve his country from the White House.
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