Welcome to Des Moines, Mr. President

By Tom Quiner

In this 2007 Life Magazine photo, President Obama campaigns in Beaverdale, Iowa.

The President of the United States is visiting my neighborhood this morning. He’ll be at the home of members from my church. Some of my friends will be in attendance.

I had a 7 AM meeting at my neighborhood coffee shop this morning, Grounds for Celebration, where a couple of Secret Service agents where loading up on caffeine.

It’s all exciting, but I didn’t earn an invite. I wonder why?

Despite our differing political views, I welcome the President to Beaverdale, Iowa. (Beaverdale is the name for a neighborhood in Des Moines — surely one of the best places in the world in which to live!)

I honor the Presidency and welcome President Obama to my beloved state and neighborhood.

A friend of mine, a Democrat, asked if I could ask the President a question, what would it be? I don’t know that I have a question as much as an explanation for the difficult political climate in which President Obama operates. It goes back to Peggy Noonan’s question to which I referred in my post last night: does the other side have a good motive?

Abortion is the leading social issue that explains much about how conservatives assess the President and his Party’s motives .

They state that abortion should be rare, but safe.

But the legislation they have either passed or want to pass contradicts their rhetoric.

They refused to exclude abortion in the language of the mammoth healthcare bill they passed. True, the President signed an Executive Order preventing it, but an Executive Order does not carry the clout of clear legislative language such as the Hyde amendment.

The President is an enthusiastic supporter of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). This act would have devastating implications for Americans who revere the sanctity of human life. It would strip away conscious-protection laws. Doctors would be compelled to perform abortions, because abortion would now be considered a basic “human right.” Catholic hospitals would be forced to abandon Catholic principles … or close. The sheer quantity of abortions will only increase, contrary to the stated position that abortion should be rare.

It’s one thing for Democrats to say “although I’m personally opposed to abortion, I can’t tell a woman what she can or cannot do with her own body.”

It’s quite another for Democrats to say “you will be compelled by law to remove the life within a mother’s womb if that is what she wants.”

FOCA has not passed … yet.

Democrats took a big step toward the goals of FOCA, though, by ensuring that abortion was not excluded from the healthcare bill, the President’s Executive Order notwithstanding.

So, here is what I would say to President Obama:

“Mr. President, I hold your office in high esteem. I pray for you often. I pray that God keeps you safe. But I don’t trust your motives. I’m concerned that you want to impose a new value system on me, my Church, and my country, one that our Founding Fathers never envisioned, one that my Church never envisioned. I’m concerned that if you and your party get your way, Americans who have embraced traditional American values of God-granted rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, will experience economic sanctions … or worse … if they don’t accept your new order. I wish you well, Mr. President. Thanks for letting me voice my views.”