Best HP Laptops 2019
This is a troublesome group to identify as
"opponents" of constitutional fidelity. They often claim to
support that. Some argue they have largely hijacked the term
"conservative", so that people who are disposed to support strict
conservative positions find themselves allied with them. The
problem is that they will often depart from constitutionality when
their positions are not supported by the Constitution.
The problem is that they so dominate "conservative" groups or the
Republican Party that it can be difficult to support strict
conservatism without their support.
Here are some of their main issues.
Abortion. Abortion has not always been discouraged by laws
in the U.S., whether making it illegal to have an abortion, or to
assist in having one. The old common law rule, going back to
Edward Coke, was that personhood began at birth, not at conception
or at a later time. As an illegal act it was largely promoted by
the Roman Catholic Church, and taken up by various protestant
groups, in the late 19th and early 20th century.
In the mid 20th century many conservatives supported abortion on
the theory that "unwanted" children would be more likely to become
criminals. The evidence for that theory was always weak, but crime
did tend to drop after abortion became more readily available.
Abortion was largely legalized by the Supreme Court in Roe v.
Wade, which was decided on other grounds than the Fifth
Circuit Court, which found a Ninth Amendment Right of a woman to
decide how many children she could have, although the Supreme
Court did not actually reverse the Fifth Circuit, so the decision
in that court still stands.
Ever since Roe social conservatives have sought to
reverse it, in the hope that they could revive anti-abortion
statutes in some states if it were. That is unlikely. It would be
difficult to empanel a jury that would convict in such cases.
There is also a problem that it is too easy to have an abortion,
with or without assistance. There are now drugs that can induce
abortion at any stage, at low cost.
But as long as social conservatives think overturning Roe is
possible, they will be interfering with court decisions on the
subject.
Homosexuality. Largely ignored for most of history,
attempts to criminalize "sodomy" emerged in the 19th and 20th
centuries, which accomplished little or nothing. Such laws are
dead letters or struck down by the courts.
School prayer. The practice of having student say prayers
in school or elsewhere has never been shown to be effective in
their moral development. Kids just do it to please adults without
changing their beliefs. Likewise for things like reciting the
Pledge of Allegiance. All one does is encourage hypocrisy.
People need to come to belief through a personal journey.