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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction
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To: mph who wrote (52518)10/29/2006 2:48:19 PM
From: Cogito  Read Replies (2) of 90947
 
mph -

That phrase "situational ethics" is often used by conservatives to imply that liberals have no real principles or ethics. But it's really just a kind of propaganda phrase that has nothing to do with the real world. Ethical issues are not always black and white, and situations do have to be considered.

For example, most conservatives would probably say that our constitution guarantees U.S. citizens certain rights if they happen to get arrested. Access to a lawyer, a speedy trial, the ability to confront the witnesses against them, etc. However, these conservatives seem to leave themselves an out for certain situations. So these constitutional guarantees might not apply if we're all really, really scared. I'm thinking of the Jose Padilla case, here.

Or we might say that it's not OK to torture people if you're Saddam Hussein, but it is OK if you're George Bush or Donald Rumsfeld. The justification for this is that these people are terrorists, who don't care who they hurt, so it's OK to torture them. Of course, this assumes that we never make a mistake and arrest the wrong guy. The presumption of innocence principle gets thrown out because, again, we're really, really scared.

- Allen
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