Legislating Morality

"You can't legislate Morality." A common cliché that is brought out to thwart any laws that would restrict our personal behavior. Modifying behavior is what the law does. Doesn't matter what the law is , its enforcement or threat of enforcement causes some change in behavior. Morality is nothing more than a code of behavior. Both law and morality govern the way one lives. One can live under a moral code that is more strict than the law requires without sanction, but if one lives a moral code that is less strict than the law, one runs the risk of arrest. Here lies the conundrum. Who's morality are we going to live by?

That statement is the essence of the political debate. Doesn't matter which society is in question, the struggle is over who's moral foundation will govern society. There are some who would say that morality is relative, that no one moral code is superior to another. This is anarchy and also bologna. Few would venture to say cannibalism is a virtue, yet there are societies that live under such a morality. We have a constitution which is the basis of our government. It spells out the moral skeleton of our society. This is why the choice of political officials and judges is so vital and why the debate is now so vicious. Someone is going to lose.

The choice has to be made. It will be debated and decided through the political process, or it will be thrust upon us by force. If our morality is good it will sustain us. If we are unwilling to fight for it we admit our moral weakness.