Something I just noticed the other day, though of course it's been in front of my face all along.
When I was in college, being opposed to or suspicious of government placed one automatically on the left. Government was the bad guy, the grey men in grey suits, the coddlers of polluters, discriminators against all who weren't like them, the charter members of the military-industrial complex, those who dropped napalm on villages and subsidized evil dictators.
Now, of course, it's all changed, and distrust of Government is suddenly the core conservative position. I wnder when it changed? Perhaps when a liberal was elected?
I wonder if anyone here agrees with this proposition:
The "moral high ground" will almost always be held by the opposition party.
The reasoning:
It is easier to oppose than to propose, and easier to propose than to implement. It is easy to remain pure, consistent, and moral when you aren't in a position to put your ideas into action. The moment you step into the actual world of governance, it all gets complicated. Reality sets in. Compromise is inevitable. And the rarified purity of abstract thought flies out the window, to reappear only when the other guys get in.
I'm not exactly married to that notion, but it seemed like it might make an interesting base for discussion.... |
