Perhaps I am a little weird

- and I am sure that those who know me best would

probably agree with that statement - but I have

always believed that consistency is a virtue.

And, most commentators I

have read - in the religious, political, social, or

education realms, either contemporary or historical

- agree with that position.

The most forceful leaders,

they all seem to be saying, are those who have thought

through the issues of life and have developed a

consistent philosophical approach to them.

Oh, sure, there are

exceptions to every guiding principle - and the best

leaders are those who are flexible enough to bend with

the exigencies of the time.

(Thomas Jefferson is a good

example: He was the founder of the anti-big government

school of thought who, as President, eagerly overstepped

the strict constructionist bounds of constitutional

government in jumping at the chance to purchase the

Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte and lay the

groundwork for this nation's development "from sea

to shining sea.")

But, consistency is no

virtue, apparently, if you are a contemporary religious

or social conservative Republican politician.

Indeed, to many of these

pompous, abrasive, right-wing nuts (and there is no

better word to describe the single-minded intensity of

some of them that that!) it seems that they are making a

virtue out of being inconsistent.

Take Georgia's Seventh

District Congressman Bob Barr, R-Rome as an example.

Barr is an outspoken

opponent of big government which invades the private

lives of individual citizens, as are many of his

staunchest supporters in Cobb County and Northwest

Georgia.

Yet, this week, Barr was

instrumental in another of those mean-spirited,

Big-Brother power grabs which keeps the citizens of the

District of Columbia in bondage to the whim of whichever

party controls Congress.

(Our nation's capital, as

you may know, is a not a part of any state but is under

the direct "oversight" of Congress, according

to the U. S. Constitution.)

It seems that the residents

of the District voted in a referendum last year to

legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes with a

doctor's prescription.

Barr's amendment to a

budget bill overrides that vote - and ignores the

fact that six other states have recently passed such

initatives.

The astute congressman also

ignores the fact that his own constituents, as well as

all their fellow Georgians, have had the right to use

marijuana for medicinal purposes for 19 years, since the

General Assembly in 1980 passed a law that is still on

the books to allow doctors to provide marijuana "to

seriously ill persons suffering from the severe side

effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatment and to

persons suffering from glaucoma who are not responding to

conventional treatment."

Now, this is not the only

time Barr has tripped over his ideology when it comes to

imposing his conservative principles ("That

government is best which governs the least") through

the heavy-handed, arm-twisting tactics of Big Brother.

Nor is he along among his

GOP brethren in allowing his personal commitment to

limited government to be sidetracked by his desire to use

big government as a way to impose his credo on others.

Consider the campaign of U.

S. Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-New York, to prevent localities

from allowing needle exchange programs as a way to halt

the spread of diseases passed through the use of dirty

needles.

Or, consider the campaign

of U. S. Rep. Steve Largent, R-Oklahoma, who has battled

to prevent unmarried couples from adopting children

- a position he wants Washington to impose on local

governments regardless of their feelings about the issue.

And, then there is the

Republican intiative - supported by so many of these

"little government" conservatives that it would

be impossible to single out one or two sponsors -

which prevents local physicians from discussing abortion

as an alternative to pregnancy in Federally-funded

clinics.

Is inconsistency the real

virtue?

Or, are all these

Republicans just being a wee bit hypocritical when it

comes to using the powers of big government to impose

their narrow-minded agenda on those who cannot fight

back?

[Lee N. Howell is an

award-winning writer who has been observing politics and

society in the Southern Crescent, the state, and nation

for more than a quarter of a century. He has served on

the Spalding County Democratic Party Executive

Committee.]

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