Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Right-Wing Utopia

While some aspects of the American conservative agenda might be attractive to some people some of the time, I doubt that most people have taken conservative positions to their logical conclusions. If they did, I think many fewer Americans would be willing to sign on.

Here's an outline of America if the conservatives had their way:

  • Abortion illegal in all cases. Women getting abortions and the doctors who perform them are charged with first degree murder; women who attempt them are charged with attempted murder.
  • Birth control outlawed.
  • Anti-sodomy laws reinstated.
  • Gay people banned by constitutional amendment from marriage, by federal law from military service, and by state laws from adoption, teaching, and any profession involving children.
  • All environmental regulation repealed.
  • Public education abolished, along with government funding of any education at any level: early childhood, student loans, etc.
  • No government funding for the arts, under any circumstances.
  • Islam not recognized as a religion, and thus stripped of all religious protections.
  • Muslims banned from elected office, government employment and military service.
  • America officially declared "a Christian nation."
  • Employers, landlords and public businesses allowed to discriminate on the basis of race, sexual orientation, or anything else.
  • Child labor laws abolished.
  • Government surveillance on any person for any reason legal.
  • English declared official language, and governments forbidden from printing materials in any other language.
  • Unions outlawed.
I could go on and on like this. But even with just these few (real life, not exaggerated) examples, is this the nation we want to live in?

Maybe we should think about that.