The Big Chill

I was stunned recently, while watching an episode of Fareed Zakaria's GPS, to see a clip of David Cameron (the conservative Prime Minister of the UK) robustly and sincerely endorsing same-gender marriage. He does so, in his words, not in spite of the fact that he's a conservative, but precisely because he's a conservative.

This is a remarkable contrast to the radical, fundamentalist, religious-style extremism we see with "conservatives" on this side of the pond.

This isn't the lie-and-let-live, keep government out of my business conservatism we saw 40-50 years ago, it's now one of exclusion, not inclusion. They want a morals-police officer in every bedroom, and seek to foist their so-called "christian "values" on everyone who doesn't hold the same narrow worldview they have. And just when it starts to seem tolerable, this crowd seems to move further right (do you think Rick Santorum, with his neanderthal social views, could have been a viable presidential candidate 15 years ago?).

And look at how they're trying to roll women's reproductive rights back to the 1940s, and paint Planned Parenthood as a pariah.

Further proof? Last week Indiana voters chose to give 6 term sane Republican Senator Richard Lugar the heave ho to seat this guy:



And let's not forget the great state of North Carolina voting 61% to ban equal marriage rights to a whole community of people (ironically, the civil union ban which was included also affects heterosexuals).