Don’t Bother Us with Facts

Continuing with today’s theme that voters chose moderation over extremism, and echoing last week’s post about the numbskulls in our government who think it’s their place to preach abstinence to unmarried American adults, there’s this:

Most Americans, regardless of their political leanings, favor comprehensive sex education in schools over abstinence-only programs, researchers reported Monday.

Currently, the federal government champions the abstinence-only approach, giving around $170 million each year to states and community groups to teach just-say-no sex education. This funding precludes mention of birth control and condoms, unless it’s to emphasize their failure rates.

However, critics point out that studies have failed to show that abstinence-only education delays sex or lowers rates of teen pregnancy.

This latest study, according to the authors, suggests that the federal government is out of step not only with research, but also with public opinion.

Of the nearly 1,110 U.S. adults they surveyed, 82 percent supported programs that discuss abstinence as well as other methods for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Half were in outright opposition to abstinence-only education.

Even among self-described conservatives, 70 percent supported comprehensive sex ed., while 40 percent opposed the abstinence-only strategy.

The findings “highlight a gap between policy, and science and public opinion,” said Dr. Amy Bleakley of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and lead author of the new study.

So our government spends $170 million a year promoting abstinence-only sex ed, but four-fifths of Americans — i.e., the people the government ostensibly serves — want comprehensive sex education.

Is it any wonder that the opposition party, the Democrats, didn’t cough up a single seat in the House or Senate, or a single governorship, in yesterday’s midterm elections? Is it any wonder that a religious-right extremist like Rick Santorum lost by 18 points here in Pennsylvania?

It’s one thing to have deep religious faith and strong convictions. I think most of us, no matter our political leanings, respect that. But it’s another to try to cram your religious beliefs down the throats of the rest of us.

The strongest political conviction I have is probably this: The government works for us. When I cast a vote, it’s because I’m trying to hire that person to work for me, with his salary and expenses coming out of my tax dollars.

I’ve had that feeling my entire life, going back to college. I never skipped class because, in my view, I was paying that professor or graduate assistant to teach me. I paid most of my own tuition and expenses, and I just couldn’t justify throwing that money away. If I paid him or her to teach and then didn’t show up to be taught, it was no different in my mind than buying a plane ticket and then not showing up for the flight.

My tax dollars don’t discriminate between Republicans and Democrats. Whoever wins the election gets my money. I understand that if the guys I voted against win, they’ll make decisions that will better reflect the views of the people who voted for them, rather than mine. That’s why I vote. If my money is going to pay these people anyway, I’d rather they be the people I chose for the job.

So I never expected a guy like Rick Santorum to see things my way in office. But when he and people like him support extremely unpopular policies, whether it’s abstinence-only sex ed or a minimum wage that’s too low in the eyes of Americans, they deserve to lose, and lose big.

Tags: Tags: sex