The basic principle on which conservative beliefs are based is the conviction that, regardless of guilt or innocence, the state, not the individual, gets to decide who lives and who dies. This is the principle that directs conservatives whether the issue is physician assisted suicide, medical intervention for pregnant women, the currently in-active military draft, the imposition of the penalty of death, or, most recently, the provision of medical services to the indigent.
The justification for giving the state the right to determine who lives and who dies rests on the belief that human beings are basically immoral and that the state (society) needs to be able to rid itself of those who absolutely refuse to comply with its directives. That this belief also informs our country's relationship with other nations is evident in the recently adopted strategy of pre-emptive attack and its demonstration in the assault on Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis have been put to death simply because their leader was alleged to have refused to follow U.S. directives.
While the designation of the state as the sole arbiter of life and death might seem to conflict with the description of the U.S. as a god-fearing nation, man's ability to perceive himself as the enforcer of god's will on earth is not deterred by the apparent hypocrisy. In any event, there it is. Individuals have no rights other than those the state deigns to bestow on its good and faithful servants.
In other words, rights are rewards that must be earned. Which is why non-citizens have no civil or human rights, as Justice Roberts has recently ruled and as Judge Alito will doubtless agree.
But., while most Americans are likely to conclude that the denial of rights to aliens and miscreants doesn't affect their own, the basic premise, that the state has sole jurisdiction over life and death, most certainly does. Because it is this principle which accounts for why the nation is unable to set up a rational universal medical care program. Who's going to trust a state making arbitrary life and death decisions with making decisions about one's health?
Of course, in a democracy, the state gets its powers from the people and the people can, ostensibly, take them back. Will we? I sure hope so. Our lives depend on it.
Posted by Hannah at December 15, 2005 11:02 AM