Flourishing in All Forms

I’m not an elite, but I do get to read the PAW from time to time. Ryan Anderson ’04’s essay in the April issue has left me confused. Expressing that the goal of the GOP should be to craft policies that serve the flourishing of human beings, rather than “government-run institutions replacing the authority of families, religious communities, business, and other institutions of civil society” but then speaking about “upholding normative understandings of marriage and family” — well, that sure sounds like the GOP will be telling me the right way to live. And specifically so.

Sorry, Mr. Anderson, human flourishing comes in all forms, and that includes honoring a woman’s control over her own body, as well as love in all its various presentations.

Interestingly, the Republican efforts to make voting more difficult all across the nation (thirsty, anyone?) were not mentioned in the essay. I will be watching to “see whether the GOP speaks not just about fair procedures” — I’ll be watching closely for fairness.