Rick Perry came out of the Iowan caucus a front runner for the republican nomination, by establishing a middle ground between Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachman. The reality is, that Rick Perry is a threat to political theory, and the future of The United States of America.
First let us start with the bad. The problem with Rick Perry is not in his politics it is in his ethics, no I am not criticizing Rick Perry’s morals, I am criticizing the fact that Rick Perry uses his morals from his religion into his politics. The difference between right and wrong is relative, what one believes is right and wrong is not necessarily what another believes is right and wrong, and for Perry to force his own moral views on the the people of the United States takes away the ability for Americans to decide their own views to live by.
Recently Perry, Bachman and Pawlenty all signed the “Anti-Gay Marriage Pledge” presented by The National Organization for Marriage, which states “if elected President, I will: support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification.”
Whether or not one believes in homosexual marriage is beside the point, the point is that a political official can not use religious or moral standpoints to justify a public policy. As described in Article 6 of the constitution “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”. Which contradicts the fourth clause of the “Anti-Gay Marriage Pledge” which states “establish a presidential commission on religious liberty”.
With that out of the way, Rick Perry is not the worst Republican nominee for 2012. Rick Perry does present sensible solutions to the economic problem in the United States. As we have seen in Texas, Perry has taken a $10 billion budget deficit in January of 2003, and in ’05 come back with an $8 billion surplus. He has created jobs, and gave Texas one of the most stable economies in all of the United States.
Rick Perry, in order to gain my vote, has to show that his religious and moral views will not interfere with his public policy. Politics is already a complex world of what should and shouldn’t be done, but one the social level. When a politician calls for the people to pray for rain, and to pray in schools, and to pray for stopping fires, that is when religion went to far. Believe what you want, and no one can stop you, but politics must respect the boundary of where they can apply it to the masses.
