do you believe morality should be legislated by our politicians?
607727
Of course not. But politicians know that if you can get the Jesus bloc you've snared a nice group of voters who will pretty much believe anything. If they'll go for talking donkeys and water being changed in to wine, swallowing your claims for tax reform and smaller government is easy.\n\nTheists love politicians because having their viewpoints backed up by guns is very appealing to them.\n\n"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." - Thomas Jefferson
996125
I agree, it would be nice.  I suppose I am naive and think everyone should be held to the same standard.  It does send a bad message as now there is a pervasive attitude in America they 'everyone' thinks they should get away with everything.  It's not entrely because politicians getting away with stuff, but it doesn't help.  \n\nIt is a timely question.  If you read the Declaration of Independance you'll see how "all men are created equal" and "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."  So clearly they should not be held above us, should not be above the law and should be tried and convicted if found guilty.
668086
Absolutely. We need some form of ethical direction in our lives.
648071
I'm not sure of the laws your talking about, I don't need someone who is elite to decide for me wether or not my neighbor can just come over my house kill me and take my posessions without penalty.\n\nThe laws your probably talking about are the ones where the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, and we have no control and have to keep paying car insurance and stuff like that.\n\nOne day we may have politicians elected that do represent the people.  I suggest you check out the Libertarian party.
632213
Where can we find those free people, coty?\n\nJenni, tell me, how do we enforce morality? Morality has to be ingrained.  It has to be in examples seen and heard every day, from different sources.  TV? Turn it on.  What do you see? Trash?  Radio? What do you hear? More trash? People cheating, lying, stealing, killing, cursing, drinking, doing drugs? Morality is learned from our national and community leaders (who have failed abysmally to establish high standards, either party), newspapers, TV, radio, schools, peers, other adult acquaintances, and of course from parents and other adult family members.  You sound like a moral, caring person, but how many of them are out there?
720045
I say "Eat at Joe's!"\n\nSeriously, though, think about what you're saying: the left is trying to ruin the morals of the nation.  Now consider: would half (or a third, or whatever) of the people really want to ruin the morals of the country?\n\nMaybe, but is there another alternative to explain things?  Well, they have a different view of morals.  They see what they're doing as the right thing.  If you look in other societies, like the middle-east, they certainly don't see themselves as immoral -- in fact, they see *us* as immoral -- because that's how they were raised.\n\nYou may disagree, I may disagree, with their moral standards, but that doesn't make them any less of a moral standard.\n\nAssume good will if at all possible, and find a middle road.
599672
No, Morality is personal.  Rules are for everyone.\n\nRules can be set to try and set some kind of moral backing, but it is up to the person whether or not they want to follow the rules.
895706
I do not think gay marriage or abortion should be made illegal.  I am simply an economic conservative and morally apathetic.  I believe drugs should be decriminalized and marijuana legalized.  I think the drinking age should be lowered as it serves to curb binge drinking, alcoholism and drunk driving, as people become accustomed to drinking earlier in life and it does not gain the "forbidden fruit" aura.  I am economically conservative, however, and feel that taxes show be dramatically lowered, the welfare state shrunken, and national security buffed up.  I feel that my moral stances make me different from many conservatives
928810
NO WAY.  Morality is used to push things on us like gun control, environmental policies, animal rights, etc.  SCREW THAT, I'm tired of these fascist "liberal" weenies forcing their views down our throats.\n\nLove jack\n\nPS HAHAHA, stem cell could have saved "billions of people" - what a laugh.  Are you sayhing that all 6 billion people on earth will now DIE because of Bush?\n\nStem cell research is still continuing.  The government just doesn't want to fund research that uses human embryos or fetuses.
165776
what in who?! ethics in action. there is no morality in government.
716380
I am a conservative but I am here to tell you that you cannot legislate morals. It is just not going to happen. The problem I see with our society today is that we are taking away personal responsibility. When people are not held accountable for their actions morality will indeed suffer. I think this is not a conservative or liberal problem, but rather a societal one. We are allowing our children to drown themselves in video games and endless hours of television. We spend less quality family time and expect the schools to teach morality, but at the same time hamstring their ability to enforce discipline in our classrooms. Rather than address behavioral problems we now medicate them. The list of problems goes on and on. Just blaming one side or the other is useless when what we really need to do is come together in the name of finding common sense solutions.
998783
gravesendian said it perfectly as far as I'm concerned.  I agree 100%.  \n\nMorality is a purely human construct.  What is "moral" or lawful in one part of the world, can be immoral or illegal in another part.  Take prosititution...in some countries it is legal, in others not.  What makes the difference?  Difference in human perception...difference in what is considered an acceptable standard of behaviour.
1087225
no I dont think so\n\nmaybe morality in some areas would go down but things like rape and murder are in society's best interest to prevent and punish.\n\nYou have evidence of this in atheistic communist countries that still had laws against theft murder and rape.
863349
I do not agree.  The politician only fails if he/she does not represent his constituents in a way that most benefits them.  Only if the politican believes his words are more important than his/her deeds does he set him/herself up to fail, because no matter what a good job representing his constituents he does, he is likely to say something that one side or the other does not like.
196526
Of course they should. \n\nWhat you'll learn as you grow older is that politicians have a knack for distancing themselves from people and living in ivory towers. Thus, most of them see only one side of issues and  ignore things that they don't like. This is why most politicians do not read these posts.
446204
In a ideal situation we should remove the laws that restrict posession by law abiding citizens.\n\nBut more importantly...\n\nENFORCE the laws we already have.
398783
Yes the Repuglicans should change to include all of America in their plans. A move toward the middle would help. As for the independents they should pick a side. Either side. They are the real problem here. Because they usually vote for the best Rhetoric and never mind the best person for the job. I would like to know why Repuglicans have a lock on the moral issue. I am against abortion, I just feel that government has no business in either moral issues or religious issues. Every time that a government has tried to legislate morality it has failed. It just drives it under ground and people do that behavior anyway. It actually has brought down governments as with the Roman empire and even England and many others. That is why we declared our Independence from England as they were trying to legislate their morality on us.