Catholibertarian

I have been reading my old friend and grad school apartment mate Kyle Cupp lately at his blog Journeys In Alterity, now at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen.  The last time I responded here to something he wrote it was quite well received and, much to my shock, got attention in some serious climate science circles, with helpful criticism and a surprising amount of generous praise (see here and here  and here).  While that’s not likely to happen again soon, it has made me less reticent to read the words of my old friend, who has, as he puts it, “gone over to the dark side.”  Today I conceived of a piece that I thought worthy of publishing here as a response to something he recently posted at his site.

Puzzled by the fact that a pro-life organization near to him (Texas Right To Life) had him on a mailing list, he decided to critically examine what they sent him, which was  a very cute campaign ad for a local candidate for the Texas Stae House, Scott Turner, endorsed by TRTL.  Here is the the image of one side of what appeared in Kyle’s mailbox:

Questions arose about the age of the baby.  At one point Kyle actually suggested that the baby was too old to have an interest in voting pro-life:

Obviously, the imperative “vote like a baby” is supposed to mean “vote pro-life,” and yet the ad itself, which features a child closer to a year of age instead of a baby in the womb, suggests a voting ethic that takes more into consideration than just abortion.  This cheerful, flag-waving baby has more at stake than not being killed.  Perhaps the election of Scott Turner isn’t in his interest.

Kyle then went on to speculate about the baby’s ill-fitting jeans (which, in my not so humble opinion, only makes the pic all the more adorable and, as propaganda, was  a stroke of genius).  Perhaps the baby is poor, has no health insurance, and thus he should vote for the Democrat who promises to keep him dependent on public assistance and sucking on the Big Government teat from the cradle to the grave?

Well, that’s one possibility, but when I allow myself the time for mental play and engage in speculation about the ad, I take the baby’s support for the pro-life candidate named on the back of the card as a given and go from there instead of second guessing his decision about what is in his own interests.   Then I ask, why might a baby who is no longer in danger of being brutally murdered in the womb want to vote for the pro-life candidate,  and some possibilities occur to me, which I offer under a rhyming title that spontaneously popped into my head this morning: Maybe The Baby…

Maybe The Baby…

…has an interest in his younger brothers and sisters being protected by law and valued as what they truly are from the moment they begin to live: human persons with rights.

…just isn’t as comfortable with the length of the slippery slope from abortion to infanticide as we non-infants can afford to be.

…is too young to have been tragically intellectually corrupted by postmodern philosophy.

…is just grateful for making it out of the womb alive and, out of gratitude, wants to support those who have always been on the side of his humanity and dignity.