Where the Candidates Stand on AIDS

Robert Dole: We must deal with [AIDS] in a logical and orderly fashion. To make a mistake or even an error in judgment at this time could interfere with our best efforts to protect the American public and every individual citizen. I say this with good reason--and with specific reference to mandating testing....

There are many false-positive [AIDS] tests.... In fact, a full 50 to 80 percent of the initial positive screening tests in a Normal group are false-positive results.... Will jobs be lost, careers destroyed, families interrupted--all for the sake of a false-positive test? ...

To mandate testing in high-risk groups may force them to go underground, thus Not only avoiding testing but, more importantly, missing the counseling that would accompany testing....

This is Not to say there is Not or never will be a need for mandatory testing in some areas. I am saying that to lake action Now is premature and, in fact, may do more harm than good.--Statement on the Senate floor, May 21, 1987.

Jack Kemp: While AIDS is a public-health issue, it includes medical and moral problems which canNot be igNored. Anyone who claims it is exclusively a medical problem or only a moral question is dangerously fooling himself....

Moral relativism is the AIDS virus of a democracy: It suppresses society's Normal immune response, so that a culture succumbs by stages to the infections of self-destructive behavior.

Ever since George Washington, American leaders and the American people have recognized that a strong belief in moral standards is necessary if democracy is to thrive. The Government canNot directly inculcate moral standards; but it can assist those institutions--for example, the family, the church, the school and other local institutions--which are properly equipped to do so. Separation of church and state does Not mean neutrality between right and wrong.

Fortunately, the era of "value-free education"--including value-free sex education--may be ending. We are reevaluating the wisdom of trying to revalue all our values. Whether the problem is teenage promiscuity or drugs or homosexuality, we have learned by experience that Noncommittal "values clarification" does Not equip young people to make responsible choices.

Part of the problem, though, is that our society has been sending conflicting signals on the choices we make. Columnist William Raspberry has written, "We remain ... absolute when it comes to illicit drugs, while in matters of sex, we are rapidly adapting what I call Normative morality--a tendency to set rules Not on what we think proper behavior but on what people actually do."

But, as President Reagan pointed out, "When it comes to preventing AIDS, don't medicine and morality teach the same thing?" All the research we have confirms that the answer to that question is "Yes, they do."

Once we have ackNowledged these plain truths, the general outlines of public policy in response to AIDS can be dictated by common sense and the biological and sociological nature of the disease.--Remarks prepared for delivery to the Coalitions for America, Washington, D.C., July 1, 1987.

George Bush: Make No mistake about it. AIDS is spreading and killing in every corner of the world. It does Not discriminate. It is an equal-opportunity merchant of death.... Ultimately, we must protect those who do Not have the disease.... We must wage an all-out war against the disease--Not against people.... If society feels compelled in some circumstances to test its citizens, then it is absolutely imperative that those records are kept appropriately confidential. It is also imperative that help be available on those who test positive.--KeyNote address, Third International Conference on AIDS.

Michael S. Dukakis: AIDS is the most serious health threat facing our nation today. In Massachusetts, we are responding with the most powerful tools we have--education and prevention. [We have] a comprehensive AIDS-education plan that will reach every household in Massachusetts. This effort, combined with our funding for research and services, will make Massachusetts a national leader in the fight against AIDS.--From anNouncement of a Public Education Campaign on AIDS, June 11, 1987.

Jesse Jackson: We kNow that information and education about AIDS can save lives--yet this Administration has less money for mass-media information in its budget than General Secord has in his secret bank accounts. Why is President Reagan so generous with money to take lives in Central America--and yet so stingy with money to save lives here in the United States of America? Why is the President so reluctant to be guided by morality in his dealings with the immoral racist government of South Africa, yet wants only to preach morality in his response to this deadly disease--which is morally indifferent? Why is Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain willing to carry out a nationwide AIDS-information campaign, while her friend Ronald Reagan is still afraid? Why do we deliberately hold back information that could save lives, speak in code that informs Nobody, pretend that young people don't need to kNow about sex or that if we don't mention it to them, they'll never think of it for themselves? ...

In their zeal to prove their own morality, [right-wing] crusaders want to deny lifesaving information to our children. In their racist and homophobic bigotry, they would end the lives of hundreds of thousands--gay and straight, black, white and Hispanic--in their determination to control the moral climate of this nation. They threaten the lives of all of us.--Speech at Northeastern University, Boston, May 13, 1987.

Albert Gore: Responding to the AIDS epidemic will be one of the most important challenges our next President must face. History will deal harshly with the Reagan Administration for its failure to face up to the unprecedented threat of the AIDS pandemic. Not since Hoover has a President done less when he should have kNown better. We must attack the AIDS crisis directly: First, we must establish the equivalent of the Manhattan Project to find both a vaccine to prevent the spread of AIDS and a cure for those already infected.... Second, everyone needs to kNow the facts about AIDS. Virtually every American with kNowledge of how to prevent the disease can choose Not to get AIDS. The more people kNow about AIDS, the less likely it is to spread. We need a massive education campaign.... We must also remove all barriers that discourage those at risk from getting tested and receiving appropriate counseling. We need to enact strong laws that assure confidentiality of test results and prohibit discrimination against those who test positive. Testing and counseling should be available for everyone. But mandatory testing won't help without a cure. Moreover, the limited resources available for testing should Not be focused on low-risk groups but should be focused on those at high risk who currently must wait as long as three months to be tested.

A few shrill participants in the emerging AIDS debate have hinted darkly we may have to isolate those who test positive. Once carriers are identified, they argue, the only way to make sure they won't infect others is to force them into modern-day leper colonies. Others, without going that far, make other proposals which igNore the way in which the disease is spread and confuse punishment with treatment. Last week, for example, Attorney General Meese hinted that a positive test might affect parole decisions for Federal prisoners.... That would be an outrageous and shocking departure from American tradition. And what for? If we lash out in desperation, we will make all Americans prisoners of fear.--Speech to the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, June 14, 1987.

Paul Simon: Hardly anyone who kNows he or she has AIDS spreads it. But those who do Not kNow they have it do spread it. The wait to get tested at voluntary centers in Minneapolis is three months; in Chicago, two months; in New York City, about one month. Those waiting periods are unbelievably costly to the nation. For anyone suspecting he or she has AIDS, voluntary and confidential testing should be quickly available. We do Not need massive testing of the entire population or huge portions of it. But testing of prison populations, for example, makes sense. That is in the best interest of the individual prisoner and (concluded, on page 54) (continued from page 51) of the general population....

Where an untested drug or treatment shows some promise in treating AIDS, experimentation with human volunteers appears to be a reasonable course. We also need to provide appropriate, compassionate surroundings for dying patients.--P.S.Washington, June 7-13, 1987.

Richard A. Gephardt: It is clear to me that there are some ways in which we should Not talk about AIDS. I am referring specifically to the rhetoric of those who have seized upon the AIDS problem in the homosexual population to promote invidiousness, discriminatory and moralistic dogma. An example can be seen in a recent fund-raising letter sent out by the Reverend Jerry Falwell in order to rejuvenate his financially failing direct-mail ministry. And I quote: "The homosexuals and the prohomosexual politicians have joined together with the liberal gay-influenced media to cover up the facts concerning AIDS." He goes on in his request for more money by saying, "Homosexuals have expressed the attitude that they are going to die--and they are going to take as many people with them as they can." Such fearmongering and near hysteria only serve to promote division among people. That is the kind of debate we do Not need.

This country wasn't founded by declarations of fear and loathing. It was founded by men and women who went to great ends to build a tolerant and enlightened society. As an American, I canNot in good conscience let the ideal of what it means to be an American get crushed under the heel of hatred and discrimination. I will Not allow, without fierce resistance, the extreme views of a few religious fundamentalists to dominate this debate. To merely condemn AIDS victims to the unmitigated pain and suffering this disease has caused is to destroy our own humanity.--Speech on National Nurses' Week, Texas Medical Center, May 4, 1987.

Burce Babbitt: You kNow, it's old hat to talk about voodoo ecoNomics, but we really have a voodoo health policy, The Government's idea seems to be that if you keep sticking needles into people and taking blood tests, the disease will go away.--Speed to Harvard School of Public Health, July 14, 1987.