Legislating Morality Quotes
By morally subjugating the existing laws, the scriptures, public opinion to the law of nature, Spinoza distressed many of the clerics and civil authorities of the day. Spinoiza's views were so threatenting to the established religious authorities that he was the only man in history to have been excommunicated by the Jews, the Catholics and the Muslims.
Spinoza was one of the most feared intellectuals in human history—feared, that is, by the established power structures. Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
While the American people at that time generally were familiar with homosexual issues, few know much about transgender people who were generally quite discreet and had not been militant. They were politically and media wise, almost invisible. Hence the statement was very meaningful and appreciated coming from a high government official. North Carolina passed a state law making it illegal for any person to use a public bathroom reserved for a gender different from what appeared on their birth certificate, regardless of what the city, county or local community had been doing or wanted to do. Transgender men who dressed, looked, acted, and lived as men, under the law would have to use the women's toilet, which could in many situations would cause them to be attacked by others perceiving that man was attempting to use the women's rest rooms.
Justifying his support of the Hyde Amendment prohibiting Federal funds to be used to perform abortions. Carter was normally a staunch defender of equal opportunity for the poor, but the Hyde Amendment de facto prohibited poor women from exercising their rights to have abortions while middle class and wealthy women could exercise that right.. The hypocrisy was difficult for him to explain.
Goldwater was not a racist personally, however he opposed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 against the leadership and majority of the Republican Party, and he initiated a “Southern Strategy” whereby he invited the racists of the South who were furious that Democrat Lyndon Johnson had abandoned them and ended legal segregation forever, to leave the Democratic Party. They did, and while they and the hard core of ultraconservative Goldwater republicans were not enough to overcome the public disapproval of the callous strategy and Goldwater’s nuclear positions. However, the coalition that Goldwater had assembled formed the base of a new Republican Party which gave Ronald Reagan strong majorities, and in the early 21st century the Goldwater coalition of Southerners, Goldwater conservatives gained control of the Republican Party and purged most of the moderates and polarized American politics ending even the traditional bipartisanship in Foreign Affairs.
