Monday, March 5, 2007

Obama Reveals His Knowledge [Serge]

Barack Obama said something quite interesting during his speech commemorating the Selma Civil Rights march...

We have too many children in poverty in this country and everybody should be ashamed, but don't tell me it doesn't have a little to do with the fact that we got too many daddies not acting like daddies. Don’t think that fatherhood ends at conception. I know something about that because my father wasn't around when I was young and I struggled.
It is quite revealing that a momentary true statement can undermine such a hard fought ideological position. Obama clearly understands that human life begins at conception, and the post-conceptus that he speaks of possesses a father. This in itself is an important admission.

However, Obama's main point here is even more revealing. He is arguing that a man who helped to conceive a child has obligations to that child. If these obligations are not met, then we have "daddies not acting like daddies." In other words, there are fundamental obligations that a parent has to their offspring, and when these obligations are not met, we should be "ashamed".
Implicit in this moral argument is that the child herself has value and can justly expect to be treated in a manner worthy of that value.

It all probably sounded good in the speech. Which is because it is all completely true.

However, it certainly flies in the face of his support for abortion rights without exception. If he expects one parent to live up to their obligations, what about the other? How can he expect to convince one parent to take responsibility for what they have conceived when he fights to allow the other parent to kill their offspring? This is a dilemma he cannot escape from. Either his words to fathers have absolutely no moral force whatsoever, or his support of abortion rights including partial birth abortion has no foundation. He can't have it both ways.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, Serge! Great find and great connection to his disparate views between fatherhood and motherhood! Do you think that anyone will point this out in a national media setting? Someone should.

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