Remember her? I sure do. I actually think that when the history of this miserable last 8 years is written, the Schiavo case will rank as one of the top 10 turning points in America's rejection of the repo party -- right up there with 'no WMD', Katrina, the AG scandal, the congressional page scandal, oil prices, Wall Street bailout, recession, you name it. Its time to bring the Schiavo episode back to life, and here's how to do it.
At some point in the remaining debates the question of choice will come up. Let me say first, that I have tremendous respect for Obama's willingness to frankly take this issue on and not run from his support for choice. But what I have yet to see him do -- or anyone else -- is talk about how the question of choice -- which divides millions of americans -- fits in with certain values that most americans instinctively embrace. And the value I am talking about, primarily, is liberty from government intrusion -- in shorthand, privacy.
Justice Louis Brandeis called "the right to be let alone . . . the right most valued by civilized men."You won't find the right to be let alone mentioned anywhere in the constitution, but it animates every one of the freedoms in the Bill of Rights. Its the right to be let alone that says: my god is a private matter; my speech, my thoughts and my body belong to me; my home is my castle; who I write to, call, or e-mail, and what I read, are private matters; and family decisions belong to me and my family. And it is this right to be let alone that has been under assault by the Bush administration, as well as by many of Senator McCain's most fervent supporters. We all remember the Terri Schiavo case a few years back. For weeks, millions of americans watched in stark horror while the radical right wing of the republican party tried to prevent a husband and father from carrying out the end of life wishes of his dying wife.
Most americans, thankfully, will never have to face the issue of whether or not to abort a fetus. But all of us, each day, make decision about what we think and say. We make decisions about whether, where, and how to worship a god. We decide who we wish to marry, and whether and when to have children. We make health decisions for ourselves and for our kids. We use the phone, write letters, and send e-mails. And we go home at night to the relative sanctity of our homes, free from the fear of the knock on the door in the middle of the night.
Americans value all of these liberties, which is why we have the Bill of Rights. But every one of these liberties has been under attack by the extreme form of republicanism that has governed our nation for the last 8 years. These extremists don't want you to have such liberty. To them, it is dangerous. And so they wish to give the state the power to tell you what to think and what to read. They want the state to tell you how to make the most personal medical decisions that affect your health and reproduction. They want to invade the family and tell you who you can live with, how to raise your children, and even how to die. They want to read your mail and listen to your phone conversations. And everything that goes on in your home is their business.
So perhaps you believe that a woman does not have the right to make medical decisions about her body and whether to bear a child. Perhaps you believe that the state has the right to make those decisions for all women. You need to ask yourself -- what other decisions and liberties am I willing to give up? And who do I want to make all those decisions for me?
We can continue on the path of less liberty, the path that Senator McCain and the Bush administration wish us to travel. Or, we can change our direction, and return to the path laid out by the founders of our nation.
As a postscript, I think it extremely telling that in one of the Palin Couric interviews Palin unhesitatingly embraced the notion that the right of privacy is contained in the constitution. Most folks saw that as evidence of her ignorance, which it is, to anyone who understands the legal basis for the Roe v. Wade decision. But the point, to me, is that we democrats, libertarians, and progressives have allowed the right to define the issue of choice as a religious issue, rather than an issue of liberty. My guess is that probably 90% of the american people think as Palin does -- that privacy is protected by the Constitution. We need to tie the issue of choice back into this more general question of liberty.