Quote of the Day for Friday, December 10th, 2010:
Indiana Governor, and prospective 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, Mitch Daniels, on the propriety of the Indiana state legislature advancing some pro-life legislation:
“As long as it doesn’t get in the way of the really crucial (objectives) — keeping Indiana in the black, improving our economy and bringing big reform to things like education. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of that, there’s plenty of time and capacity.”
I rolled my eyes and felt discouraged when Daniels made a comment several months ago proposing a “truce” on social issues in order to focus on economic matters. My eyes aren’t rolling anymore, and I’m now not so much discouraged as disgusted. This is a man who truly doesn’t get it.
Men like this are often more of a threat to the commonweal than those who openly embrace those most horrific of misanthropic practices and policies, because he clearly views the human being through the same sterile lens of instrumentality, but masks it behind a smokescreen of conservative (read: bourgeois) respectability.
I’m OK with people like Mitch Daniels holding public office, as long as they stay in the background, and don’t get in the way of the really important work of securing a just public order.