You start asking politicians to take moral oaths and you are just asking to get lied to. (See also, last season of The West Wing for dramatized version of same.)
I'm interested in politicans who are themselves interested in Statecraft, in the stewardship of the Republic (and, in those rare instance, dedicated to it even moreso than in their own career at it).
Accordingly, I'm interested in how they intend to govern based on evidence (policy), not on faith.
I'd like to hear a politician say that they don't think that homosexuals are criminal and that they ought not be discriminated against.
AS's need - and others, it's a chorus - for general declarations on morality as part of a "profile in courage" for political leadership is misguided.
If one wanted to have a "war on poverty" or a "war on cancer", because that seemed like a moral imperative to you, then fine. But asking for moral pronouncements on topics probably is a signal that the political discussion is going in the wrong direction already.
After all the writing on faith and reason, it appears to this writer that too many still ... get nervous when a storm rocks their boat on the waters.
link: Bootstrapping Andrew Sullivan
link: Bootstrapping Andrew Sullivan
