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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The positive commandments

Update to this post
I've reviewed and adjusted my scoring for the positive commandments. Now, the GOP wins the category 23-21.

Below, I tell you how I scored all of the non-neutral positive commandments. We'll do the negatives ones later.

Methodology: For each commandment, I asked the following question: Which party is more likely to propose this as law, or to support it as public policy? I do not consider the merits of the law or policy itself.

Anticipated criticism: (1) This proves nothing; and (2) Sometimes the same idea rewards a party more than once. For example: capital punishment; it's one idea, but because of how the commandments are organized, their support of capital punishment gets them four points.

Response to criticism (1) No kidding Sherlock; this is a game, not a dissertation; and (2) See previous comment.

GOP
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P 1 Believing in G-d A word on the God commandments: I know liberals believe in God, too, but they are unlikely to support legislation that makes this belief mandatory.
P 2 Unity of G-d
P 3 Loving G-d
P 4 Fearing G-d
P 5 Worshiping G-d
P 6 Cleaving to G-d
P 8 Walking in G-d's ways
P 9 Sanctifying G-d's Name
P 17 A king should write a Torah Some in the GOP think everyone should own a bible
P 18 Everyone should write a Torah See previous comment
P 19 Grace after meals There are those in the GOP who would make prayer mandatory in the public school; why not after meals, too?
P172 Heeding the Prophets
P173 Appointing a King Or a president with virtually unlimited authority
P205 Rebuking the sinner
P210 Honoring parents
P211 Fearing parents
P212 Be fruitful and multiply
P214 Bridegroom devotes himself to his wife for one year Family values
P224 Whipping transgressors of certain commandments Many GOPeople support corporal punishment in schools.
P226 Beheading transgressors of certain commandments
P227 Strangling transgressors of certain commandments
P228 Burning transgressors of certain commandments
P229 Stoning transgressors of certain commandments

Democrats
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P120 To leave the corners (Peah) for the poor This is the liberal flip-side of capital punishment. Here "helping the poor" is worth five points. And though the GOP wants to help the poor, (maybe) they're not likely to support government programs - or the Torah's welfare agenda.
P121 To leave gleanings for the poor
P122 To leave the forgotten sheaf for the poor
P123 To leave defective grape clusters for the poor
P124 To leave grape gleanings for the poor
P146 Slaughtering animals before eating them I've never known the GOP to care much about how animals are treated.
P148 Releasing the mother before taking the nest See previous comment
P177 Treating litigants equally before the law The criteria was which party is more likely to support these commandments? Though the GOP wouldn't necessarily oppose the idea that everyone is equal in front of the law, liberals, historically, are the ones who first sold this idea; even nowadays, Democrats are more likely to introduce and support new legislation on this subject.
P179 Inquiring into the testimony of witnesses See previous comment
P191 Send back any man unfit for battle The idea that someone deserves a military deferral for being mentally or physically unfit sounds lefty to me - especially when you recall that men who were scared or newly married or in possession of new fields were thought to be "unfit"
P193 Including a digging tool among war implements As the Iraq war showed us, Donald Runsfeld doesn't believe in properly equipping soldiers.
P195 To give charity I don't mean to suggest that the GOP hates charity, but GOPeople would strenuously object to laws telling us how to give, when to give and how much to give. These particulars are all part of Jewish charity law.
P197 Lending money to the poor See previous comment. GOPeople may be happy to loan to the poor, but they'd protest if the governement required them to do it.
P199 Restoring a pledge to a needy owner
P200 Paying wages on time
P201 An employee is allowed to eat the produce he's working in
P202 Unloading a tired animal
P203 Assisting the owner in loading his burden
P204 Returning lost property to its owner
P207 Loving the convert
P231 Burial on the day of execution

Still much more to say. Later.

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