Obama Igniting Culture War?

By Melanie Phillips, The Spectator

Interesting story in today’s Sunday Telegraph about what Obama’s first week in office tells us about the priorities and values of America’s new president. The Telegraph reports Republican uproar over one of Obama’s first acts, to lift restrictions on government funding for groups providing abortion services or counselling outside the United States. Abortion is possibly the most toxic and divisive issue in American politics, inspiring violent passions. Obama has said he wants to end the ‘culture wars’ in America; it is hard to think of a more effective way of igniting them. The reaction was immediate and brutal:

Family groups accused him of plotting the ‘infanticide’ of African children. Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, president of the American Values pressure group, said: ‘It is both sad and infuriating that in the same week President Obama extended new rights to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and began planning to release men whom we know have murdered Americans, he is preparing to sentence innocent children to death through abortion.’

A propos, a number of commentators have noticed the striking omission, in Obama’s inaugural speech, of any reference to the right to life in America’s foundational principles; his reference to the noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness
was a notable departure from the Declaration’s iconic commitment to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. The Telegraph also reports an immediate contradiction between what Obama proclaimed as a break with the bad old days of corruption and what he actually has done:

Having announced new ethics rules banning lobbyists serving in his administration, the president was immediately forced to make an exception for his deputy defence secretary William Lynn, who has lobbied for the defence industry giant Raytheon.

Not to mention his designated Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, who unaccountably ‘forgot’ to pay his taxes in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. NRO reports:

At Geithner’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, he did not give clear, direct answers to questions about his knowledge of mistakes in his 2001 and 2002 returns… After all, the senators said, Geithner worked for the International Monetary Fund during all of that time, and he signed for and accepted IMF reimbursement for paying self-employment taxes, even though he had not, in fact, paid them. As it turned out, Geithner had done the same thing in 2001 and 2002 that the IRS found he did in 2003 and 2004.

Oh dear. The idea that Obama is a centrist who wishes to end the culture wars is laughable. (Indeed, in such a war there is no centre ground: you are either on one side or the other).

The White House website sets out his agenda on ‘civil rights’, which includes expanding federal ‘hate crime’ legislation, ending racial profiling, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and supporting full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples, giving adoption rights to gay couples, and lifting the federal ban on needle exchange – a policy promoted by drug legalisers on the disingenuous grounds that this will reduce infection among drug users but which actually helps normalise drug abuse.

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