Republicans Oppose Gays But Support Torture -- Why?

Yes, I know the title is provocative, but it's still true: Republicans as a party oppose homosexuality and gay marriage, yet support the use of torture. (Platforms and polls below the fold.)

My question is, Why? What would lead a party to be so thoroughly opposed to civil and human rights? Is it a macho thing, a "strict father" thing a la Lakoff, or a right-wing Christian thing? Or is there another reason, an unexpected reason?

But first, the data.

Anti-Homosexuality and Anti-Gay Marriage

These two stances are fairly easy to find in Republican literature and polling. The North Carolina Republican Party platform of 2008 (PDF) , for example, is pretty clear:

Homosexual behavior is not normal and should not be taught as acceptable. Public schools should not be used to teach children that homosexual behavior is normal. Taxpayers should not fund benefit plans for unmarried partners. We support federal and state constitutional amendments to ensure that marriage is limited to the union of one man and one woman. We oppose the adoption or foster parenting of children by same sex couples.

The RNC national platform (PDF) doesn't address homosexuality directly, per se, but the reference noting the "incompatibility of homosexuality with military service" gives an early indication of where they are going. Following after that is their lament that judges "are undermining traditional marriage laws from coast to coast."

Just to be sure we got the meaning of that last phrase, they call for

a constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it. In the absence of a national amendment, we support the right of the people of the various states to affirm traditional marriage through state initiatives.

Throw in the Pew Research Poll of May, 2008 that showed 75% of Repubs opposed to gay marriage, and it's pretty clear that Republicans believe homosexuality is wrong and gay marriage is even wronger. But enshrining prejudice in the Constitution is a good thing.

Torture and Treatment of Detainees

Republicans are all for indefinite detention, and for keeping Gitmo open. If you need proof, you need only check GOP.gov, the web site of Republicans in Congress, where they are pushing the "Keep Terrorists Out of America Act." They also apparently like "Gitmo's Virtues," as they link to a WSJ article discussing same. And in case you thought this was just a recent play to make Obama look bad, here's a quote from the RNC platform for 2008:

The attacks of September 11, 2001 ... should have put an end to the Democrats’ naive thinking that international terrorists could be dealt with within the normal criminal justice system, but that misconception persists.

What about torture? Nothing in Republican platform documents about torture -- even the persons who wrote the above gems aren't stupid enough to put "we support enhanced interrogations" in their platform documents. For the data on Republicans and torture, we have to turn to the polls.

In January of this year, a Washington Post - ABC News poll found that

71 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independents in the poll said torture should never be used, but most Republicans, 55 percent, said there are cases in which the U.S. should consider using torture against terrorism suspects.

And here's an even more interesting tidbit --  65% of Republican men believe torture is acceptable.

A more recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (conducted April 14-21) found that

• twice as many Republicans as Democrats say torture is sometimes justified (49% vs. 24%).
• 38% of Democrats believe the torture of suspected terrorists is never justified, compared with 14% of Republicans.

It seems pretty obvious that, as a party, Republicans support torture much more than Democrats.

Why?

That is the question I ask now. And it's not a facetious question -- I am truly curious about how a supposedly national party can hold such views.

One theory, of course, is that Republicans support order above all. After all, "conservative" is supposed to mean "conserving the old ways." Perhaps they just can't see that change is coming, and acceptance of homosexuality as a normal situation is just beyond them.

But torture? How can anyone want to "conserve" that way? So now we are left with "security above all" as an explanation. That seems pretty far-fetched to me; after all, many other security issues have been non-starters with Republicans. (See: food security, port security, chemical plant security, just to name a few.)

A Theory

This is already an over-long diary, so I am just going to state this for now. It may be worth pursuing, or it may not -- you tell me.

I think that when it comes to explaining these two Republican positions side-by-side, all the usual suspects fail us. I'm going to propose a new one: lack of empathy.

I'm serious. When I have talked with Republicans about various issues, invariably I can see the issue from the point of view of the affected individual. And just as invariably, the Republican can only see it from their own viewpoint, their own needs and desires. Essentially, their argument often boils down to "sucks to be them!" They cannot put themselves in the other person's shoes.

Thus -- no sympathy for the person being tortured, innocent or not. No sympathy for the homosexual, shunned by society and discriminated against. No understanding of the poor ("they should just get a job!") or the homeless ("it's their fault!") or the union worker ("the jobs are going where they're the cheapest -- tell 'em to move!").

In short -- no ability to have empathy for anyone different from themselves. Thus, support for torture, and the back of the hand for homosexuals.

What do you think? Any ideas? Throw them in the comments, and let's think about this together.

Comments

[David Bannister]

Oh Bruce... as you know these are two near and dear issues to my heart of course.

I was just getting motivated to write a facebook note, so I'm sure I will and I'll be sure to tag you to it as well. But I'm currently in a small debate with someone on a gay christian forum about Torture.

Of course its a polarizing debate where I've been called unAmerican and a traitor basically because I am a "pacifist liberal". My pacifism hasn't always been here... I struggle with it, but I know how I should feel, but sometimes its so hard to "turn the other cheek". But it's amazing to me to talk to conservative christians and hear them rave how "pro-life" they are and when they say they are pro-torture I always have to ask, "But you said you're pro-life!?"

Pro-life is conception to natural death. I am a pro-life supporter. And I know you understand pro-life to be more than abortion and more than the death penalty. To me it's also about quality of that life. And it just boggles my mind how things that should be a very gray issue, becomes a 2 sided coin that you are either on one side or the other.

Of course for me, as a gay Christian male, I have strong opinions on many things, gay issues and torture.

For one, Jesus would not support Torture. Ever. And I shudder to think that those conservatives who "cling to their bibles and guns" would think Jesus would support it. And for me, hearing all the stories of conservative christians who are so against homosexuals because its "anti-biblical" are there supporting water-boarding.

The hypocrisy of it all just astounds me and makes me so sad for them. Just so sad.

A Ghandi quote that has moved me lately considering the times reads... "Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong but of the weak."

And because of that quote, it makes me very sad at times to know what we did and where it has brought us down in the world. We have lost our moral high ground we once had, and I just hope that someday we'll be able to regain it again.

Be well,

David

[Bruce]

David -- Sorry you are having to deal with someone who supports torture. It's an irrational position, not to mention a hateful one, and no fun to deal with. I always want to ask them if they support torture for speeding tickets, or for anyone who's a suspect in a crime, and ask them to explain the difference.

As for your last graf -- I wish I had the quote handy, but there was a great quote from a statesman from another country who basically said that if America lost the moral compass it had always followed and stooped to preemptive war and torture, then it would stop being America and become just another empire throwing its weight around, like every other empire in history.

Let's pray that America the ideal will continue to live.