BCT Editorial – 4/19/07

This page was last updated on April 19, 2007.

Don’t confuse us; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 19, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Facts are stubborn things, but people are even more stubborn.”

[RWC] Any time an editorial purports to talk about facts, hold onto your hat.

“The Associated Press reported last week that a study that tracked 2,057 young people in government-funded sexual abstinence programs found that those who participated in these programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later than those who did not.

“The study by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. also found that those who attended one of the four abstinence classes that was reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts - 14 years and nine months.

“The Bush administration didn’t let the study make it reconsider whether the $176 million the federal government spends annually on abstinence-until-marriage education is money well spent. It cautioned against drawing any sweeping conclusions from the study.

“The AP reported one lesson officials said they learned from the study was that the abstinence message should be reinforced in subsequent years to truly affect behavior. Isn’t that social engineering, something conservatives are supposed to abhor?”

[RWC] So which real conservatives support federal spending on sex education of any kind?

As difficult as it may be for the Times to understand, President Bush is a Republican, not a conservative. As far too many, including former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, President Bush is simply a Republican who supports conservative positions on some issues and liberal positions on others. For example, a conservative would not have signed the McCain-Feingold bill, pushed the No Child Left Behind Act, pushed to expand Medicare via the prescription drug program, et cetera.

The fact that folks like the Times believe a Rockefeller Republican like President Bush is a conservative shows how far to the left these folks have drifted over time. Make no mistake about it; these are not JFK era Democrats/liberals.