Former Gov. Cuomo sets an excellent example for Democrats to sell their agenda to the faith-based community.
In today's NY Times, former NY Governor Mario Cuomo, a Democrat and a devout Catholic, spoke out in a poignant
Op-Ed piece against the Bush hypocrisy on stem-cells.
In it, he takes on the issue of faith and moral conundrums as they relate to the stem cell question, and points out the cognitive dissonance in conservative thinking on promoting a so-called "culture of life":
No doubt the president's belief that human life begins with fertilization is shared by millions of Americans, including many Christians and evangelists. But it remains a minority view and one that the president applies inconsistently. Although Mr. Bush believes that destroying an embryo is murder, he refuses to demand legislation to stop commercial interests that are busily destroying embryos in order to obtain stem cells. If their conduct amounts to murder as the president contends, it is hardly satisfactory for him to say he will do nothing to stop the evil act other than to refuse to pay for it.
Cuomo then goes on to raise the argument that I've been waiting for years for someone to make: that just because a segment of the population has a moral problem with something, it doesn't mean that they are compelled to partake in it (abortion, stem-cell research). Futhermore, if a majority of Americans *do* support something, they should not be prevented from taking part in it just because of the moral conundrum of a religious minority.
But our pluralistic political system adopts rights that arise out of consensus, not the dictates of religious orthodoxy; and if such rights are adopted - approving abortions or financing stem cell research on leftover embryos - they will be the law of the land, even if religious dissenters, through their tax dollars, end up helping to pay for things that they find anathema. Every day Americans who abhor the death penalty, contraceptives, abortions and war are required to pay taxes used in part for purposes they consider offensive. That is part of the price we pay for this uniquely successful democracy.
So far neither Mr. Bush nor religious believers have convinced a majority of Americans that the use of embryonic stem cells inevitably entails the murder of a human being. Most Americans, vividly aware of the millions of tragic victims of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and spinal cord injuries, believe that embryonic stem cell research may provide cures. They will demand that Congress act to realize that potential.
Hopefully, this is just one of the first in a long line of Democrats who realize that there is a way to appeal to the faith-based community while still furthering a more progressive social agenda.