Monday, April 13, 2009

Should Bill Clinton have been born?

Some times the intellectual shallowness of politicians and the hypocrisy with which it is greeted is stunning. Our Secretary of State recently received the Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood. According to Kathyrn Jean Lopez, Secretary Clinton announced that she is “really in awe” of Sanger. “The 20th-century reproductive-rights movement," she said, "really embodied in the life and leadership of Margaret Sanger, was one of the most transformational in the entire history of the human race ...”

I suppose it would be worse if she accepted the Strom Thurmond Award for the defense of federalism, but it ought to be people like me, who disagree with Planned Parenthood about so many things, who should be claiming that its movement for "reprodutive rights" (i.e., abortion, but people from State are devoted to euphemism) is embodied in the hateful persona of Margaret Sanger.

Here are some money quotes from the patron saint of "reproductive rights:"

"We want fewer and better children . . . and we cannot make the social life and the world-peace we are determined to make, with the ill-bred, ill-trained swarms of inferior citizens that you inflict on us.”

"Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the reproductive period."

"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."

"Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying ... demonstrates our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism ... [Philanthropists] encourage the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant ... We are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates of an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all."

Awesome. Just ... awesome.

7 comments:

Billiam said...

If these were college students, the same ilk that wear Che t-shirts, I could cut them some slack for their ignorance. That Mrs. Clinton KNOWS about Sanger and her demented evil thoughts, and still said that, speaks quite poorly or her character, or lack of it.

Dad29 said...

Look at the Wisconsin Progressives' history to find statements nearly identical to Sanger's--and proposals for neutering (not just segregating) 'the feeble-minded.'

jp said...

Hitler would be pleased.

Anonymous said...

I believe your criticism is misguided. Margaret Sanger held ideas about social engineering and eugenics that were relatively commonplace in the early 20th century however unpalatable they have become. In this she is hardly unique in American history. Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln all held views on topics like race relations and universal suffrage that might make modern readers cringe. While it is important to be aware of the full facts, the overall achievements of these people overshadow their shortcomings. Sanger advanced the rights of women at a time when to do so was virtually unheard of. Moreover, the rights she advocated (and, thankfully, not her reasons for doing so) have become an important part of the modern conception of liberty. Her reasons are far less important than her legacy and the award reflects that.

Rick Esenberg said...

Well, one could say that about Thurmond (particularly in the culure in which he was raised) as well except, unlike Sanger, he actually changed his views before he died.

More fundamentally, I don't agree that one can look at the abortion culture and conclude that it is not informed by the same antinomian attitude toward the value of human life. The difference is that, today, that attitude is expressed in support of private, as opposed to public, objectives.

So maybe Secretary Clinton was right. It is about the persona of Margaret Sanger.

Clutch said...

"I don't agree that one can look at the abortion culture and conclude that it is not informed by the same antinomian attitude toward the value of human life."

Hey, that's an interesting fact about what you manage to believe. But it doesn't seem to implicate much beyond the vagaries of your doxastic abilities.

Presumably this little bundle of conviction on your part is facilitated by such ill-defined bogeypersons as "abortion culture".

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