Pandering?
March 24th, 2005 | by Todd W |Yahoo! News - Poll: Evangelicals Oppose Gov’t on Schiavo
So Schiavo is a political football and the GOP is guilty of pandering for votes?
More than two-thirds of people who describe themselves as evangelicals and conservatives disapprove of the intervention by Congress and President Bush in the case of the Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a national debate.
A CBS News poll found that four of five people polled opposed federal intervention, with levels of disapproval among key groups supporting the GOP almost that high.
One of two things has to be true.
1). The GOP has completely misread their constituency.
or
2). They did what they thought was right, regardless of popular opinion.
I have a hard time believing number 1, not in the age of overnight focus groups. While I disagree strongly with the notion that Federal Intervention was appropriate, I at least respect option number 2.
I’ve seen so many polls of people saying Terri should die. The media keeps pounding that drum even as they refuse to provide any conclusive accounting of the discrepancies in medical opinions. It is easy to engineer any poll result if the data is muddled sufficiently.
But that isn’t the point. This is not a matter for polls or opinion. The legal foundation has already been established. We have defined laws on living wills, spousal custody and protocols for removal of heroic care. Unfortunately for Terri, the courts will continue to uphold these principles. But the legal mechanism also presupposes a good faith effort on the part of the judiciary to investigate and weigh the interests of the silent party, and I can’t help but suspect that this has not been the case. There are too many uncertainties in this case that place it on the fringes of our accepted legal mechanism.
Vocal medical experts that have testified to Terri’s PVS condition have ties to euthanasia movements. Medical experts with contrary testimony are tied to the anti-abortion movement. Michael Schiavo has refused any attempt at rehab or therapy. And those videos of Terri still haven’t been explained to the lay audience.
Resolve her status, and the argument moves away from Terri and focuses on the legal mechanism of heroic care. THIS is where our focus should be, to prevent these situations from occurring in the future. Spousal fidelity, custodial abuse and the clear expression of desire through a living will are the essential elements at question here. If the Judiciary has illustrated their unwillingness to investigate such claims, then it is up to the legislature to enact appropriate mechanisms to compel such investigation by force of law.
Decades of trivial electoral decision has led us to this point. Lack of attention to judicial appointment, local political offices, and inattention to judicial usurpation of legislative power has brought us a Schiavo situation. Ultimately, the voters are to blame. Will they now try to correct the situation?
I’m not hopeful.
