Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Ben Domenech ·
February 4, 2012 at 7:07pm
Watch this. Now.
Marco Rubio always seems to follow Peter's four word advice about speech-giving: "Crack jokes. Tell stories." It's a rarity in the Senate, where so many are in love with the sounds of their own voices. But the principles that undergird these words are the key element, the aspect so often sorely lacking in political speeches today.
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Dec '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Read about Christie's poor decisions on judicial appointments and you may not have that fear anymore.
Apr '11
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
billy
I hope so. The VP slot would be a waste of his talents. · 1 hour ago
Being VP would be a waste of his talents. But being VP would elevate him to the likely nominee in 2020. Being the VP nominee on a losing 2012 ticket would elevate him to the likely nominee in 2016.
May '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
One more point on personhood, since that's what this debate really revolves around.
Personhood is not an objective trait. It is relational. Personhood is "who" a person is. Though certain aspects of a person's character are constant, those aspects are important or unimportant depending on who you ask.
"Who is so-and-so?" He's a father or son. He's a friend or colleague. He's a good man, or a selfish man, or an impatient man. He's a New Yorker, a Texan or a Turk. He's a liberal or a conservative.
How we answer "who" changes depending on the circumstances... on who is asking and why. The more mature and experienced a person, the more possible answers one might provide.
The question of personhood as relates to abortion is really about what grants a being a right to life.
I would respond that the right to life — inherent human value — does not derive from one's actions or any quality which emerges during maturation before or after birth. Our value comes from without, not from within. We are each inherently precious because we are uniquely loved creations and adopted children of God.
Dec '11
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Brian Watt
Look I like Christie, too...but he's hardly the Messiah. :-) · 3 hours ago
Particularly as he supported the Ground Zero mosque.
Aug '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
I think he was too soft on the pro-choice side. Maybe that was what the occasion demanded?
Dec '11
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
I did like how he refuted the whole evictionist argument, which, in living up to its "third way" claim, is just the same policy as Left but with a different name. If a parent says "I don't want this noisy newborn and so am evicting it from my house, as I have a right to do as it is my private property", and the baby freezes to death, that ex-parent will then be charged with murder. While the unborn baby may seem like a trickier matter, it is effectively the same situation.
Apr '11
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Brian Watt
Look I like Christie, too...but he's hardly the Messiah. :-) · 3 hours ago
Maybe I like him subconsciously more than I thought...or I can't spel one of the two. ;-)
May '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Whoa. As Ricochet's own, self-appointed, in-house Personalist, I protest.
Personhood is an ontological category of objective being. It is not reducible to relations.
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
katievs
Whoa. As Ricochet's own, self-appointed, in-house Personalist, I protest.
Personhood is an ontological category of objective being. It is not reducible to relations. · 5 minutes ago
Personhood distracts from the nature of this in my view. What is a human life? Someone who is 1. human and 2. alive. The rest is mere meandering.
May '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Ben Domenech
Personhood distracts from the nature of this in my view. What is a human life? Someone who is 1. human and 2. alive. The rest is mere meandering.
As Ricochet's own self appointed in house Personalist, [hereinafter ROSAP], I must protest again.
Questions related to the nature and dignity of personhood are 1) as a matter of historical fact at the heart of the ethical debate, and 2) the richest vein of philosophical gold for overcoming the culture of death.
Jan '12
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Aaron Miller: ...
Personhood is not an objective trait. It is relational. Personhood is "who" a person is. Though certain aspects of a person's character are constant, those aspects are important or unimportant depending on who you ask.
"Who is so-and-so?" He's a father or son. ...
The question of personhood as relates to abortion is really about what grants a being a right to life.
...· 2 hours ago
Are you saying that relations lack objectivity? Consider a father and son. Each is subjective to himself but objective to the other. Each is a person (in law at the very minimum).
While we cannot say what sort of subjectivity an embryo might possess, it remains objectively a living human being, a life distinct from although attached to and dependent upon its mother. In no case is it absorbed completely into her subjectivity. Its life instantiates the life of the species just as uniquely as that of a child, an adult, or a man or woman facing the hour of death.
Perhaps you mean to say that personality is not a static or an abstract trait.
Edited on February 5, 2012 at 1:37amMar '11
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
It was a good speech, however, it is not in the best of category unless you servery limit your population to Presidents/Senators. Among others Alan Keys has speeches on this issue that are a lot better.
Jun '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
There's no doubt in my mind that he's the best VP candidate. I'd pay money to see him debate Biden.
May '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Ben Domenech
Personhood distracts from the nature of this in my view. What is a human life? Someone who is 1. human and 2. alive. The rest is mere meandering.
The reason particular views on abortion and euthanasia so often coincide is precisely because being human and alive is not enough to satisfy many people.
katievs
Personhood is an ontological category of objective being. It is not reducible to relations.
So what is a person?
It's not defined by intelligence, or we would value the adult chimp more than a human baby for its greater self-awareness, greater logical abilities and greater potential for interaction.
What makes a human being a "who" rather than a "what"?
May '11
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
I like that Rubio framed the argument in terms of human rights, irrespective of whether you believe those rights come from God or not. Those are the types of arguments that can win over the other side. There is no reason the pro-life position can't be argued on secular terms.
Would have liked to hear his take on the health of the mother and rape exceptions the left always brings up.
Oct '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Wow!
May '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Here you are confusing ontological value and function.
A human baby is an absolutely unique and irrepeatable individual, of the kind that has an inner life, a self, rationality; that "possesses itself" in freedom.
It has an ontological dignity, a rank in being, a status, that lifts it far above every other kind of earthly creature, regardless of its stage of development.
May '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Say philosophical rather than secular and I'd agree.
Secularism too often suggests atheistic materialism.
May '11
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Aaron Miller:
So what is a person?
· 8 minutes ago
homo sapien, no exceptions
May '10
Re: Marco Rubio Gives the Greatest Pro-Life Speech in a Generation
Ningrim
Aaron Miller:
So what is a person?
· 8 minutes ago
homo sapien, no exceptions · 5 minutes ago
Yes. But "homo sapiens" is a animalistic term that does not, IMO, adequately reflect the radical distinction between lower forms of life and persons.