The 1 major thing missing from all the GOP candidates’ speeches who signed the USA Personhood pledge…
This week marked a major victory for the Personhood movement in America. 4 GOP candidates Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich all singed the Personhood USA Pledge which states:
I __________________ proclaim that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, and is endowed by our Creator with the unalienable right to life.
I stand with President Ronald Reagan in supporting “the unalienable personhood of every American, from the moment of conception until natural death,” and with the Republican Party platform in affirming that I “support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and endorse legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment protections apply to unborn children.”
I believe that in order to properly protect the right to life of the vulnerable among us, every human being at every stage of development must be recognized as a person possessing the right to life in federal and state laws without exception and without compromise. I recognize that in cases where a mother’s life is at risk, every effort should be made to save the baby’s life as well; leaving the death of an innocent child as an unintended tragedy rather than an intentional killing.
I oppose assisted suicide, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and procedures that intentionally destroy developing human beings.
I pledge to the American people that I will defend all innocent human life. Abortion and the intentional killing of an innocent human being are always wrong and should be prohibited.
If elected President, I will work to advance state and federal laws and amendments that recognize the unalienable right to life of all human beings as persons at every stage of development, and to the best of my knowledge, I will only appoint federal judges and relevant officials who will uphold and enforce state and federal laws recognizing that all human beings at every stage of development are persons with the unalienable right to life.
While many of the candidates who spoke at Mike Huckabee’s pro-life event in Des Moines this past Wednesday night spoke eloquently about the sanctity of human life and what they would do as president to advance a culture of life such as eliminating tax-payer funded abortions at home and abroad as well as supporting a federal human life amendment, none of the candidates pledged to do the most important thing as president they possess a moral and constitutional duty to do which is to enforce the inalienable right to life for all innocent persons from conception (when science has proven that human life begins) until natural death when individual states fail to do so. (which in our case is all 50 states sadly enough.)
Here is what I wanted even one of the candidates to say:
“The 14th amendment guarantees that ‘no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.’ As president, I will abide by my sworn oath to enforce the inalienable right to life for all persons (i.e. their Personhood) if any individual states fail to do so on their own. Since the primary duty of civil government is to protect innocent human life, I promise that my first official act as president of the United States will be to urge every governor of every individual state to enforce the inalienable right to life by criminalizing all child murder. If any individual state fails to do so by immediately criminalizing all child murder, I will issue an executive order to close down all abortion clinics in our country and authorize my attorney general to prosecute any and all child murder. My second act will be to eliminate all tax-payer funds going towards any abortions anywhere in the world. While I can’t promise you that I will be the perfect president, I can promise you that I will fulfill my primary obligation as your president…to protect the inalienable right to life for all innocent persons in our country. We can never hope to have a virtuous and prosperous nation if we continue to violate the most fundamental right all persons made in the very image of God possess…the right to their own lives.”
All of the candidates claim to be “pro-life.”
But if you really believe in the inherent Personhood of all persons from the very moment they are conceived (at fertilization) and that all abortions at any stage of a pre-born babies’ development to be murder (as all the candidates who signed the pledge claim to), then isn’t the chief executive officer of the nation, the president, obligated to enforce the God given (inalienable) right to life when individual states fail to do so?
And if the president is not as the chief law enforcement officer in the country…
Who is?
December 17th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Gregg,
It wasn’t just missing from the candidates comments. It is is missing from this grossly deficient pledge, along with a number of other crucial elements.
A “major victory”? Hardly. This whole exercise was, at best, empty political posturing, a political ploy, a public relations exercise, not anything meaningful.
At worst, it was a major tactical blunder, and a sign that certain folks don’t even understand what the strategy must be. They just haven’t thought things through, and, quite frankly, they don’t seem to care much about listening to those who have thought things through.
Unless these candidates, all of them, are absolutely REQUIRED to repudiate their other words and actions, including their promises made in this very election cycle to do the exact opposite of what the term “personhood” actually means, their signing of this completely toothless, ill-timed, ill-conceived document amounts to nothing more than a Big Lie. You’ve handed them a false credential, at virtually no cost, and helped them to once again fool millions of naive, ignorant Christians. That’s it. You’ve helped to dumb down, the term personhood to the same level as the Republican plank that’s been sitting uselessly in the GOP platform for 27 years now, dooming the pro-life movement to the same fruitless, unprincipled, unconstitutional strategies that have plagued it for four decades.
To be blunt about it, you should be ashamed that your name has been associated with it.
For Life and Liberty,
Tom Hoefling
http://www.equalprotectionforposterity.com/index.html
December 17th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I think the day will come when a politician will make that speech Gregg.
But we’ve got to bring them along in baby steps. Remember, they’re all wicked. Even the most promising amongst them is a tax attorney….
Grover Norquist has done well holding pols feet to the fire with his tax pledge sworn before men.
I’m anxious to see how much more effective this pledge is, seeing as it’s made in the name of God.
It’s amazing that pro-lifers listened to the lawyers who told us never to mention God for 30+ years. In a matter of days we went from that failed strategy to getting the signatures of these wicked, hapless, fallen, and hopefully teachable pols before God. I would think that’s a harder pledge to break than Grover’s…. We shall see.