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?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? and Liberal Dogmatism about Rights

By ADF Alliance Alert

Carson Holloway writes at Public Discourse: "In his State of the Union Message, President Obama called for a repeal of the federal law forbidding open homosexuals from serving in the United States military. As a political matter, his proposal attracted notice as a sign that the president would not try to respond to his party?s recent political setbacks simply by tacking to the center. Nevertheless, his appeal?and, more important, the way that he framed it?is of deeper interest because of an infirmity it illustrates in contemporary American liberalism: its intellectually careless assertion of rights, and its dogmatic insistence on their observation without regard to the public consequences . . . When a right is asserted, thoughtful and prudent people will ask: 'What is this right?s basis? What are its costs?' Contemporary liberalism?s only answer to these crucial questions is, fittingly: 'Don?t ask, don?t tell.' Thus it manifests a dogmatism about rights that is both intellectually weak and practically dangerous. "

Full post as published by Constitutionally Correct on February 09, 2010 (boomark / email).