The other day, in a conversation with my father, I stated that I was really afraid how far the radicals in my party would go to make sure that Terri Schiavo remains a bed-bound vegetable for the next 40 years. I had predicted that they would convince/coerce someone in the law enforcement community to arrest and charge Michael Schiavo with abuse (or anything, really). They then could ‘rescue’ Terri, because allowing her to die would be ‘destroying evidence.’
I predicted this would be their avenue of attack after they lost in the Appeals Court, because we had already seen the whisper campaigns starting several days ago. The loudmouth talking heads from NRL, the bully-boy lawyers, the life-at-all costs fanatics had all raised the possibility that Michael Schiavo somehow caused her condition. Hell- even moderates were saying things like ‘He does have a conflict of interest with all that insurance money involved,’ despite the fact that there is no money and the new standard they have just created for all beneficiaries of life insurance policies. If you are a beneficiary in ANYONE’s life insurance policy, your judgement and honesty are now in question- because you stand to ‘gain.’
Sick bastards- defining losing your wife as a ‘gain,’ but all is fair in politics, right? And that is what this is- politics and symbolism on the right to life battlefield. I have said it before- this is jihad for these folks. They don’t give two hoots in hell about Terri Schiavo- this is about abortion, religion, and most of all, about power and control. Their concept of morality is king, you see- your behavior in the bedroom, your choice in sexual partner, your desires about end of life decisions, abortion, even the medication you use to ease the pain when you are dying of terminal diseases- their religious text should have authority over you, and if all these ‘small-government strict constructionists states right’s advocates’ have to attain that through government proxy, so be it.
How radical are these folks? I predicted they would charge Schiavo with a crime. I was wrong. Instead, their full-on assault of the judiciary at both the state and federal level as well as their perversion of the legislative branches, and their misuse of the Federal and State Executive branches by Brothers Bush was not enough, and now they are attempting to use state level agencies, the ones relied upon for the non-partisan delivery of services, as a weapon:
The Florida judge presiding over the Terri Schiavo case ordered the state agency charged with protecting vulnerable adults to make no attempt to take the brain-injured woman into protective custody late Wednesday. The order appears to be in direct contradiction to a state statute that requires the agency to act…
One member of the media asked if the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) planned to take Terri Schiavo into protective custody, remove her from the hospice where she is being dehydrated and starved to death or try to reinsert her feeding and hydration tube.
“We are looking at every potential opportunity to be of assistance,” replied DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi.
That response apparently prompted the attorney for Terri’s estranged husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, to contact Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge George Greer, requesting a court order barring the state from acting. Noted “right-to-die” attorney, author and activist George Felos argued during a court hearing later Wednesday that DCF had “no more power than … a person walking down the street,” to place Terri in protective custody.
The objective reality of Terri Schiavo’s sad medical condition is immaterial, and what is important is winning this battle in the war for ‘life at all costs.’ Therefore, an anonymous call to the DCF alleging abuse in the Schiavo case seems warranted to these zealots, who then bring forward yet another neurologist who diagnosed Schiavo via internet videotape (click here if you want to see this latest diagnosis simply annihilated by Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, another life-long Republican):
Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. William Cheshire — who is also a member of the Florida’s Adult Protective Services team — said late Wednesday that Terri Schiavo “may have been misdiagnosed” by one court appointed doctor and two other physicians chosen by Michael Schiavo.
Those three doctors declared Terri to be in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), but Cheshire said, based on his examination of Terri and review of her records, she is more likely in a minimally conscious state (MCS). The term is a new diagnostic description that has come into acceptance since Terri was last examined.
All of a sudden, the hysterical slippery slope rhetoric of NARAL and NOW does not seem that unwarranted. As I write this, the Supreme Court has ruled against the reactionaries, adding yet another legal defeat (if these guys were a basketball team, they would be the LA Clippers), but I believe they will remain undeterred. God is on their side, you know, and they know what is best for all of us.
How radical are these people? Radical enough to make John Derbyshire seem downright moderate:
One of the depressing — I am not being facetious, it really does depress me — features of the past couple of days has been watching the talking-heads left-right programs on the telly and wishing I could cheer on the righty — the side of any argument I would instinctively support — but not being able to.
Watching Hannity & Colmes Tuesday night I found myself nursing a devout hope that if I ever enter a persistent vegetative state, Sean Hannity is nowhere in the neighborhood.
Amen, Derb. And if you still don’t understand how far astray these reactionaries are, read this:
But that question was not directly accosted by the judge, who said only that Terri’s rights had not been abrogated. It was unseemly for critics to compare her end with that of victims of the Nazi regime. There was never a more industrious inquiry, than in the Schiavo case, into the matter of rights formal and inchoate. It is simply wrong, whatever is felt about the eventual abandonment of her by her husband, to use the killing language. She was kept alive for fifteen years, underwent a hundred medical ministrations, all of them in service of an abstraction, which was that she wanted to stay alive. There are laws against force-feeding, and no one will know whether, if she had had the means to convey her will in the matter, she too would have said, Enough.
Welcome to Big Government, Morality Police edition, brought to you by Pat Robertson, Randall Terry, and company. And if you think it ends with Schiavo, you are misguided. The shock troops are being trained in the ways of war as we speak (more on this here from Talk Left):

Gabriel Keys (foreground) is arrested by police officers for trespassing in Pinellas Park, Florida, March 23, 2005. The young protester attempted to take a glass of water into the Woodside Hospice for the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo. A federal judge rejected a request from the parents of Schiavo to order her feeding tube reinserted, dealing a blow to attempts by the U.S. Congress and the White House to prolong her life. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
When Terri Schiavo is finally allowed to slip past her cruel fate and move on to a better place, she will not be the only one to have died this month. At another gravesite, this marker should be erected:
Barry Goldwater’s Conservatism in America
1964-2005
*** Update ***
You know what- I might as well face the fact that I owe Andrew Sullivan an apology. You were right, Andy. I was wrong.
*** Update #2 ***
William Bennett invokes Martin Luther King while advocating Gov. Bush send in troops. I think I am going to vomit. Or drink heavily.
*** Update #3 ***
However, of late, it appears that the right is losing its populist touch. The American people are clearly not buying social security privatization. The propeller heads at the right wing think tanks are evidently no more connected with the folks than their counterparts in the Harvard faculty lounge.
And the Schiavo case reveals a gap between public opinion and the worldview of the Republican social conservatives. Apparently, the religious right is not necessarily more representative of the general population than the “Beserkely” beads and sandals crowd. The right has taken on some of the worst characteristics of the New Left – morally self-righteous, making the personal, political and valuing ends over means. According to the ABC poll, even Evangelicals are almost evenly divided on the Schiavo case.
Conservatives are as intoxicated by power and hubris as liberals once were. Barry Goldwater would hardly recognize this crowd. And should the right lose its populist touch, the conservative moment may not last for much longer.
Trust the people.
*** Update ***
howard
John, in a nutshell, this is theh core problem the gop faces: there is a conservative faction and a radical right-wing faction. When will the conservative faction stand up and seize their party back?
Gordon
As a life-time Republicans, I ask myself the same question. The Republicans were suppose to be little Federal interference (especially in spirutal and family matters), go to war only when necessary, and balance the Federal budget. I would go farther than just declaring Barry Goldwater’s ideas dead in 2005, but the whole Republican party. Time for a name change: they should call the Nationalist Party of America
willyb
I feel like I’m wasting my breath pointing out that this situation will have very little precedential value…it is a unique set of circumstances. How many people that are diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state have their parents fighting to keep them “alive” while the “spouse” is fighting for their death?
Do any of the comments from nurses that have cared for Terri Schiavo give you ant pause to reflect? One, and I don’t have her name, said TS was responsive to her. She also painted a pretty negative picture of Michael Schiavo, going so far as to suggest that he attempted to induce an insulin coma during one of his visits. I have also heard that she had a number of mysterious bruises and broken bones. What is this nurses motive to lie. Is she in vast right-wing religious conspiracy as well?
I know all of this is pretty academic at this point, but so are all your comments that attempt to characterize Republicans. This is a sad state of affairs and I wish no government agancies were involved, including the judicial branch. The whole situation is pathetic.
neil
Howard, whether cause or effect, it will be at the same time as the Democrats finally retake control of the government.
RheGirl
Do any of the comments from nurses that have cared for Terri Schiavo give you ant pause to reflect? One, and I don’t have her name, said TS was responsive to her. She also painted a pretty negative picture of Michael Schiavo, going so far as to suggest that he attempted to induce an insulin coma during one of his visits.
I’ve read the affidavit of the person you’re referring to, and I’m not sure her testimony is really valid when she’s obviously trying to paint a biased picture of Michael Schiavo. That and she worked at the hospice in 1997, and Terri Schiavo’s condition has not improved at all since then.
I’m with Cole on this one – as bad as the outcome may be (and might I note that the conservatives/Republicans who disagree with how the federal government has handled this case don’t want to see any human being die the way Terri will), that’s still not an excuse for any branch of the federal government to intervene.
I feel like I’m wasting my breath pointing out that this situation will have very little precedential value…it is a unique set of circumstances.
I disagree – when a case like this is hijacked by “right-to-life” conservatives, precedent is set, even if it’s an unintended consequence.
Kimmitt
All of a sudden, the hysterical slippery slope rhetoric of NARAL and NOW does not seem that unwarranted.
Yeah, well.
The nurse in question’s name is Carla Iyer and her testimony is so over-the-top that it’s not even a vaguely credible lie. Google for her name if you want to read her affadavit.
POed Lib
As a liberal, I watch the GOP with amazement. It is now truly the Party of Fascism. The Government, the Church, the Legislature and the pressure groups are now allied to force their will upon a single individual. That, friends, is fascism.
willyb
RheGirl:
And what is the precedent???
Kimmitt:
Why do you even bother to comment? All you’ve done is demonize this nurse…want ot add some meat to the bones you threw out there?
Brian
My grandfather was one of those Reagan Democrats. He voted democrat from the 30s until the 70s, then started voting for republicans, because the hippies took over the democratic party. (I’m sure that’s how he saw it – think Archie Bunker).
Right now we are watching the same process at work: the kook fringe is taking over the republican party. This will drive voters away and mark the point when republicans started the slide back to a minority party.
Sorry, we’re not a theocracy, we never were a theocracy, we don’t want to be a theocracy. Move to Iran or Saudi Arabia if that’s what you want.
ben
if it’s any comfort, we on the left will be waiting for the day when the goldwaterites reassert control over the GOP. it’ll be nice to conduct rational debates on real policy instead of staring ashen-faced as a mongol horde of idiots pours screaming from the nearest Church of Jesus Christ, Legislator.
praktike
I now proclaim you the greatest conservative blogger of all time.
ed
Hmmmm.
Ok.
So the entire concept of giving a disabled person just one more try at a rehearing has destroyed America, Conservatism, Mom, Apple Pie and the Flag.
You’ve been sniffing glue too much lately. Cut back man, cut back.
Poed Lib
“So the entire concept of giving a disabled person just one more try at a rehearing has destroyed America, Conservatism, Mom, Apple Pie and the Flag.”
Geezus, save us from historical ignorami.
She has been, time after time, to the courts. 22 (TWENTY-TWO) judges have heard all or part of this case.
Memory – it’s not just a river in egypt.
Nelson Muntz
Ha Ha.
This IS Your Party, the party of industrial, religious fascists. Own it. Be it.
Dan
So the entire concept of giving a disabled person just one more try at a rehearing has destroyed America, Conservatism, Mom, Apple Pie and the Flag.
Straw man JINX! You owe me a coke!
Ms. Geek
It seems to me that your party has left you on its rightward, downward slide. My suggestion? Investigate the Libertarian Party. You might find it more to your liking and more along the lines of the “Goldwater Conservative” viewpoint you so eloquently mourn. http://www.lp.org/
willyb
HOW FAR WILL THEY GO TO KILL CONSERVATISM?
News flash John, conservatism, as reflected in a political party, has been dead a long time. Republicans today are like the Democrats of 40 years ago. Look at John McCain, for example. He sponsors legislation to stiffle free speech (aka, campaign finance reform), and George Bush signs it! And as you know, this wonderful reform has given us more money in politics via 527s.
Why are you so excited about this issue? Every time someone passes a law in this country, thay are infringing upon your personal life, either directly or indirectly.
semper fubar
well, I hate to rub it in, but you are the ones who voted for these baboons. We demonized ‘liberals’ were trying to tell you in 2000 and in 2002 and in 2004 that this is what you were going to get. Now here it is- are you enjoying it?
Tadeusz
Is the notion that one should be slanted toward caution on the side of saving life versus killing, an extreme position? I don’t think so.
Is the fact that Mr. Schiavo has not had an MRI done for his wife, which is usual in these sort of cases, at all troubling?
Is the way the courts ignored Congressional intent a problem? I think so.
Why the hysterical tone of this post?
Why do you assume that Barry Goldwater is the One True Conservative?
Don’t you see that One True Conservative politics is small tent politics, i.e. losing to the Dems?
Don’t you see that I could equally well play this game? After all, I’m a True Conservative, you’re just a faker is what I could say.
Don’t you remember the days when Country Club Republicans led us to a long string of victories? No, well thats because it did not happen.
And perhaps you could vent some of your fury at the Republican senators who beat on Bush’s plan to be a little more fiscally responsible, hmm?
And how about admitting that peoples fears of euthanasia leading to a rebirth of Nazi Germany have a little validity?
And why not understand that my “religious text” is one of the foundational documents for this country, and as a true conservative would understand that there are effects to change you don’t understand, and that perhaps wholesale tossing out of the foundation might not be wise?
Why so upset? It makes one wonder about you, it does. On the one hand, we have calm, but very intent people, and on the other hand we have an excess of emotion, and on the third hand we have people who understand the first group, even if they dislike what they feel is a Constitutional excess. Why are you in the second group?
Tadeusz
Tadeusz
jefe
I second that ha ha.
Suck it up dipshits – you voted for these freaks. Just bite down hard and take it like a GannonGuckert.
But it’s nice to see there are still some true conservatives who haven’t been drinking the kool-aid.
c-minus
While I appreciate you may have some doubts about the approach the Republicans have taken in the Schiavo case, it’s important that you publicly support them. To do otherwise would be to give aid and comfort to the enemy.
I mean, I’m a liberal and therefore an enemy, and I’m feeling mildly comforted by the vague unease a few conservatives have developed lately over the prospect that their party leaders are stark raving bonkers.