If you thought the Super Bowl was rough, you should have seen the contest the night before. Plenty of GOP presidential candidates took a bruising during Saturday's Manchester debate, the eighth of the Republican race. Voters who were looking for some clear points of distinction between the front-runners got their wish, thanks to Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
The Florida leader, who is fighting for a share of the evangelical support, didn't do himself any favors with his answers on the military draft. After some strong moments defending life ("I would rather lose an election than be wrong on the issue of life") and marriage ("I don't believe that believing in traditional marriage the way I do makes you a bigot or a hater"), Rubio stunned conservatives by announcing that he's in favor of the president's push to draft women. Asked if "young women [should] be required to sign up for selective service in case of a national emergency," Rubio's response astonished conservatives like Erick Erickson and National Review's Rich Lowry. "I support that," Rubio replied. Since women can serve in combat roles under the new Obama policy, Rubio thinks America should take the extreme step of forcing them there. "I do believe that selective service should be opened up for men and for women in case a draft is ever instituted."
Like Governors Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) and Chris Christie (R-N.J.), Rubio has no problem with ordering our daughters to the front lines -- a fundamental departure from the Western worldview shaped largely by Christianity, which recognizes the unique roles of the sexes. Equal in value, Owen Strachan wrote, but different in function. "Men don't ask women to protect them," he went on. "Period. This isn't about politics; this is about the essence of manhood, honor, God." As a dad, I would support my daughters if they decided to join the military on their own terms. But I would never allow the government to force my daughter -- or anyone else's -- to take up arms against her will. That's not only unbiblical, it's un-American. Which is why I would aid them in resisting such an unnatural law.
Like us, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was flabbergasted that so many Republican candidates have acquiesced to the social engineering imposed upon our military by President Obama.
"It was striking that three different people on that stage came out in support of drafting women into combat in the military," he said in townhall meeting yesterday. "I didn't have an opportunity to respond to that particular question. But I have to admit as I was sitting there listening to that conversation, my reaction was, 'Are you guys nuts?' Listen we have had enough with political correctness, especially in the military. Political correctness is dangerous, and the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in combat, I think is wrong. It is immoral. And if I'm president, we ain't doing it."
Here's the underlying problem the GOP candidates are exposing in their rush to embrace a female draft: they're making it clear that they lack the motivation and courage necessary to undo the damage done to the military under Obama. After seven years of sexual experimentation with the ranks, the next president is already inheriting a mess of morale and dysfunction. Under normal circumstances, we may be able to get away with electing a typical Republican who merely slows down the military's demise. But these are not normal circumstances. The very survival our republic is in question. And we must have a bold leader who is not afraid to swim against the political currents.
