The Misplaced Priorities of the "Morality Police"

I have often noted the hypocrisy of the far right and particularly the Christofasicts who constantly trumpet their own supposed piety while spewing hatred towards others.  Likewise, they wrap themselves in feigned religiosity, seek to regulate the sex lives of others and worship fetuses yet oppose government programs that aid poor children, the sick and the homeless.  Indeed, their conduct is the antithesis of the Gospel message.  Robert Reich sums up these misplaced priorities and modern day Pharisee behavior well in a recent column.  Here are some excerpts:

We’re still legislating and regulating private morality, while at the same time ignoring the much larger crisis of public morality in America.   .  .  .  .  The morality brigade worries about fetuses, but not what happens to children after they’re born. They and other conservatives have been cutting funding for child nutrition, healthcare for infants and their mothers, and schools. 

The new House Republican budget gets a big chunk of its savings from programs designed to help poor kids. The budget sequester already in effect takes aim at programs like Head Start, designed to improve the life chances of disadvantaged children. 

Meanwhile, the morality brigade continues to battle same-sex marriage. .  .  .  Conservative moralists don’t want women to have control over their bodies or same-sex couples to marry, but they don’t give a hoot about billionaires taking over our democracy for personal gain or big bankers taking over our economy. 

Yet these violations of public morality are far more dangerous to our society because they undermine the public trust that’s essential to both our democracy and economy.

[N]o major Wall Street executives have been held accountable for the wild betting that led to the near meltdown in 2008. Attorney General Eric Holder says the big banks are too big to prosecute.

Why doesn’t the morality brigade complain about the rampant greed on the Street that’s already brought the economy to its knees, wiping out the savings of millions of Americans and subjecting countless others to joblessness and insecurity — and seems set on doing it again?

What people do in their bedrooms shouldn’t be the public’s business. Women should have rights over their own bodies. Same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. 

But what powerful people do in their boardrooms is the public’s business. Our democracy needs to be protected from the depredations of big money. Our economy needs to be guarded against the excesses of too-big-to-fail banks.