Fanning the Culture Wars

I am of the opinion, and I'm not alone, that social issues should be decided at the local level. One size does not fit all. When liberals nationalize social issues and impose it on all 50 states, I completely understand the resentment of social conservatives - even when I don't necessarily share their view.

New York Times columnist, Gail Collins, is upset with the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. He's a social conservative, Ms. Collins is not. He is duly elected, Ms. Collins is not one of his constituents. However, in her most recent column, she has a lot to say about Mr. Perry's priorities while governing. Some of her critiques are that:

1. Taxes in Texas are too low.
2. Texas does not spend enough on education.
3. Texas has too many restrictions on teenagers getting contraception.
4. Texas should not teach abstinence only sexual education in its schools.
5. Texas doesn't respect science enough.

Some of Collins' critiques I might agree with, and some I might not. But, what struck me about the column is that it is one long mockery of social conservatives. While reading it, all I could think to myself was: does every last jurisdiction in the country have to adopt the complete liberal social agenda before they will stop? Is it really only conservatives who perpetuate the culture wars when liberals are putting out columns like this?

Abortion was imposed nationally by the courts. Liberals are trying to do the same with same-sex marriage because it loses every time it comes to a vote. Will every issue be nationalized? Can Texas have their own tax policy? Their own sex education policy? Can Texas be left to decide anything?

Collins is allowed to have her own opinion on these issues. But, Texas is one of the few states that is not a basket case - and there are plenty of liberal ones which are. It's easy to pick and choose what to mock, but if you look at the big picture, liberalism isn't doing very well, but Texas is.

Collins senses that what's going on in Texas really isn't her business, so she justifies her column this way:

Meanwhile, Perry — having chosen not to help young women avoid unwanted pregnancies and not to pay enough to educate the booming population of Texas children — wowed the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington with his states’ rights rhetoric.

Which would be fine, as I said, if his state wasn’t in charge of preparing a large chunk of the nation’s future work force. Perry used to be famous for his flirtation with talk of secession. Maybe we should encourage him to revisit it. 

See - because Texas is big, Collins has a right to mock how it does things - and if they're not going to adopt the liberal agenda, maybe we'd all be better off without them!

Stay classy, Ms. Collins.