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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - Garton and Borst victims of religious zealots? Or were they simply out of touch?

Sheila Suess Kennedy, whose writings I often admire, had a column Tuesday in the Indianapolis Star that concluded:

For better or worse, however, political and civic life requires compromise. Thoughtful conservatives, libertarians and liberals can generally find some common ground that makes governing possible. They understand that no one gets his own way all the time, and that an acceptable middle ground is no small achievement in a society as diverse as ours. Zealots, however, find compromise not just distasteful, but evil. They don't acknowledge the ambiguities; they not only don't see shades of gray or moral complexity, they believe that people who do are the "real" enemy.

This dynamic plays out on both sides of the political spectrum, but in Indiana it has been most notable in the Republican primaries of recent years, where moderately conservative lawmakers have been defeated by people campaigning on the proposition that moderation itself is evil.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Bob Garton and former state Sen. Larry Borst were not defeated by opponents debating the nuances of policy. They were victims of holy wars.

And even undergraduates understand that holy wars will ultimately victimize us all.

Whoa! Jan Davis of Franklin responded this morning in a letter to the editor:
Let me see if I've got this straight: Professor Sheila Kennedy ("Uneasy about ambiguity," May 23) believes that Sen. Bob Garton was a victim of "zealots waging a holy war." The voters in Needham Township, Johnson County, are farmers, businesspersons, educators, homemakers and underemployed former factory workers, hardly zealots.

We deal with ambiguity, moral and economic, every day: will it rain, will the State of Indiana balance the budget, will the local municipality raise taxes for athletic complexes while our students languish academically, will the state legislature ever come up with decent major medical plan for the uninsured and stop the hemorrhage of Medicaid dollars?

Sen. Garton is a victim of his own actions. When he gave himself and his family lifetime health-care benefits, using my tax dollars, while failing to produce an equal plan for his constituents he lost my respect. When the senator blew off my suggestion that he model fiscal restraint, he lost my vote.

It is naïve, offensive and remarkable when a university educator speaks for tolerance and respect for diversity while hurling inflammatory salvos at voters she clearly does not respect. Professor Kennedy, you keep on believing that we downstate folks are ignorant "right-wing" extremists, if the thought explains your world. However, I don't want Sen. Garton to be similarly confused. The primary election was not a holy war, but I was mad as hell.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 25, 2006 01:44 PM
Posted to Indiana Government | Legislative Benefits