A Republican with Some Sense

John Danforth, former U. S. Senator and until recently U. N. ambassador, and a Republican, issues a strong warning about the direction of his own party in the New York Times.

By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. The elements of this transformation have included advocacy of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposition to stem cell research involving both frozen embryos and human cells in petri dishes, and the extraordinary effort to keep Terri Schiavo hooked up to a feeding tube.