I made a mistake this morning and turned on the Joe Scarborough “Morning Joe” program. I was treated to Scarborough’s howling insistence that the rights of Catholics in America are being suborned by the vicious carrot and stick of Obama’s health care act. Scarborough sneered at the liberal blogs–his assertion, poorly framed, was that “liberals” are shoving their immoral agenda down the throats of sincere religious people who simply do not believe in abortion. A guest on the show tried to argue that the health care act doesn’t say you have to have an abortion, it just makes it available as an option. But Scarborough wasn’t having any of it. You see, Obama and his ilk are interfering with the moral consciences of Catholics who, presumably, like small children, will get “cooties” if they receive health care under Obama’s initiative. One could call this argument the “pox Romana”–if a religious person stands next to a free thinker on the bus he will inevitably be morally infected. And in this way, Scarborough partook of the the very thing he accuses liberals of doing: not trusting the people. BTW, you can always tell when Scarborough is in over his head–he yells at Mika Brezinski who is the smartest person on the show.
Planet of the Blind 