The former United States president Jimmy Carter says the
US, which has taken the lead in urging such countries as Iraq and North Korea to
destroy their weapons of mass destruction, should also disarm.
“One of the things that the United States Government has
not done is to try to comply with and enforce international efforts targeted to
prohibit the arsenals of biological weapons that we ourselves have,” Mr Carter
told CNN.
“The major powers need to set an example,” Mr Carter
said, as the US confronts Iraq over its possession of such banned
weapons.
[Full story]
Dylan’s post on Sunday about what made him a Republican and this
article reminds me of the factors that lead me to become a Republican.
I grew up in a heavily politically charged liberalized family and environment
in Oregon where I learned the gospel according to Doonesbury. As a kid I had a
lemonade stand that at the top of it said “Spiro of 76” and I thought that
Richard Nixon was the secular version of the antichrist. I read books on
Berkeley’s Peace Park, marched in antiwar demonstrations, admired hippies, and
thought that the pinnacle of society was Woodstock. As a senior in High School I
was an emotional mushy bleeding-heart liberal and I voted for Jimmy Carter. I
couldn’t have given any non-emotional reasons why I voted for him, except that
he was a Democrat and a underdog.
After graduating I joined the Navy and learned first hand under Carter’s
tutelage that being sincere and desiring to do good is not enough, you must also
have realistic and good ideas to be sincere about. His hand-wringing with the
Iran Hostage situation and his weakening of the military and lack of will to
denounce evil I believe lead to the Russians deciding to invade Afghanistan.
Jimmy Carters political answer was to cancel our participation in the Olympics,
as if that would really show them. Reality started to intrude on my liberalism,
I started to see that appeasing words and lack of action were extremely
dangerous.
Ronald Reagan becoming president was the next most decisive
step from me. I didn’t vote in that election since my indoctrination on Reagan
had not yet been broken. I couldn’t believe the change in the country as a
result of his leadership. Moral in the military skyrocketed and the economy
started to recover from double-digit inflation of the seventies. This was a man
who called evil evil and took decisive action when required, I gladly voted for
him when he ran again Walter Mondale.
The next step was listening to
pre-Rush Limbaugh talk radio where what I heard resonated with what I had
learned. Reality had shown me that human nature was fallen (though I wouldn’t
have used those words then) and that for society to work better this had to be
taken into account. Government programs handing out funds to people did not prod
them on to excellence but brought them into an addictive reliance. People
believed that government is the answer to every solution and start to willingly
wear the shackles of dependence. I don’t know how to express the competitiveness
in human nature, but where there is competitiveness there is a striving for
excellence. Every system that takes advantage of this competitiveness is usually
successful but where there is a status quo and dumbing down of standards the
opposite occurs. When the Saints are held up as the standard of holiness we
strive towards that perfection, and when cultural elites are held up as the
highest level to emulate we sink to that level.
I now identify myself as Catholic first and foremost and where that
intersects with modern conservative philosophy I also call myself a Republican.
I am greatly thankful to conservatives for starting to open my hardheadedness to
Christ. One day on the G. Gordon Liddy show I heard a caller challenging him on
the existence of God. He replied explaining the five proofs as identified by
Saint Thomas Aquinas. I had never heard a rational explanation for the existence
of God, I had never considered that it was possible. There were still a lot of
rocks in the soil for me to respond to Gods grace, but this was a tiny crack in
my atheism.
