The political right needs to come to grips with its libertarian versus authoritarian sides. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are libertarian documents that celebrate individual effort and liberty. When Conservatives try to marry these libertarian institutions with religious instruction they befuddle themselves as well as their followers. Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana, is a recent picture of befuddlement where he is trying to Clarify a Religious Objections Law because of the Business Community’s backlash to the way it was purposefully enacted to create discord. Republicans with their less government less regulation economic message have to temper their values engineering schemes to the practical and useful.
When someone declares they ought to make a law it would be hoped that the first inclination of the legislature would be to question whether it is necessary. Currently there are so many State and Federal laws that it can be argued that each of us breaks a law or two daily. Ignorance of the law is no excuse but with so many and so many that conflict we reach a point of lawlessness because no one can know the law. Under these circumstances Mike Pence is elected Governor of Indiana with a conservative values agenda. This in a Republican state that is the economic wonder of its neighbors with a tolerant, personable and conservative in manner citizenry. Its a state that does not need to codify values into law because in general its citizens are generous and decent. Recent court decisions regarding the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 showed that many states lacked their own version. Roughly half of the States have enacted their own, though its questionable they needed to. Indiana’s recently enacted version omitted an LGBT exception that every other state, including Texas, had included and that Democrats in Indiana’s Legislature had noted would be contentious if left out. Never the less the partisan majority’s will was to prove a point, rather than serve the people. That Pence is shocked by his Chamber of Commerce constituents negative reaction does not speak well of his leadership.
No doubt Indiana’s LGBT omission is a reaction to the New Mexico wedding photographer’s case where service was refused by invoking religious freedom. It appears that Pence and his cohorts believe that Indiana’s merchants require protection against forced enslavement. If these off the wall inquisitioners realized that businesses find it difficult enough to attract customers then to purposefully turn some away is commercial suicide. In the case of the wedding photographer example the gracious offer would be to advise gay clients that the project would be contracted out to another with a greater sensitivity for their upcoming ceremony. Protecting the right of business to insult customers is not a necessary piece of legislation. That the Governor is going back to clarify what can’t be clarified shows him to be the Authoritarian that he is. The problem with gross authority is that there are always exceptions where surely Governor you didn’t mean this, this or this! So the law including the micro exceptions is biblical in length and which will still require additional clarification, judicial review and finally a court turn down. What a waste of time.
