Tuesday, January 23, 2018

I'll do for you if you do for me

It's funny to see how liberals impute hypocrisy to Trump supporters. They still don't have a clue: 

i) The relationship between Trump and his supporters is like a military alliance: If you defend us, we'll defend you.

Insofar as the Trump administration is acting in the interests of freedom-loving Americans, insofar as the Trump administration is protecting their Constitutional rights, they will support him. So long as his administration is sticking up for them, they stick up for him. It's a reasonable, predictable reaction.

ii) Everyone ought to be personally virtuous. Everyone ought to be virtuous in their private life.

However, what sets a politician apart from a private citizen is their role as public policymakers. (In some cases, the same could be said for some Fortune 500 CEOs.)

At that level, the question at issue is not what choices a politician makes in his own life, but how his policies determine my choices in life. I'm not responsible for what he does in his private life–for good or ill. I don't make those decisions for him. The issue is what decisions he makes for me and my dependents. 

In terms of laws and regulations, what does he permit, prohibit, or mandate? The primary question isn't how he lives his own life, but whether he lets me live me do the same.  

As a rule, what a politician does in his personal life is his own business. But does he mind his own business where I'm concerned? Does he accord to others the same prerogative he accords to himself? 

In both (i) & (ii), there's a principle of reciprocity. 

1 comment:

  1. It seems to me that the liberal democrats can never really be consistent. Consider this as a shiny example:

    "Liberals support the "right" of an abortionist to kill a woman's unborn baby; of the state to terminate life (euthanasia); and the intentional destruction of human embryos for scientific research (embryonic stem cell research), but don't support the death penalty for convicted murderers because they say that is cruel, unjust and inhumane. The advocates of "choice" claim "innocent" people could unfairly die."

    Gregg Jackson, Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies, p.142


    In short, my comment is that liberals can never seem to "get stuff right."

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