Liberal Talk Radio

Matski, you write:

Our moral judgements, which are based on our religious beliefs, should not influence public policy. While that’s impossible to accomplish in practice, it’s something that we all need to be mindful of, and it’s ultimately what separates progressives from Radical Republicans.

But once we define something as a moral wrong, it seems impossible to defend, in the LONG run. Like slavery, or civil rights, or the death penalty (which Bruno is not necessarily opposed to, but still falls into this category).

Also, I don’t think the free-speech “respect the opinions of others” argument holds up in the face of what could be construed as murder.

I agree intellectually that we can’t legislate morality, but in practice it is one of the most galvanizing forces in politics, and has been at the root of every progressive cause since the abolitionist movement. It’s such a powerful weapon, I’d hate to give it up for the sake of, well… logic.
What separates us from Radical Republicans is not that we don’t legislate morality (I happily admit to attempting to legislating morality when it comes to the environment and civil rights), it’s that our morality comes from a humanist perspective.

I think.

Programming Note: This seems a good a time as any to announce that comments have returned to Bruno & the Prof! I’m testing out a new anti-comment-spam feature, called SCode that requires you to enter a string of digits from a picture when you post a comment.