<You simply fail to understand the importance of morality in America.>
Yes, we are a deeply moral people. Of a sort. In a way.
But.....the fabric of the morality we clothe ourselves in, is a bit thin, and has a few holes in it:
1. The harshness of our condemnation and punishment, is inversely proportional to the status of the criminal. We have, in practice, a morality that acts like the Code of Hammurabi, where the punishment for a crime depends on whether you are a nobleman, peasant, or slave. The more wealth/power/status you have, the more we let you get away with.
For instance, if the facts of the case had been exactly the same, except that Clinton had been a doc screwing his patients, or a McDonald's manager screwing his burger-flippers, he would have been fired from his job, publicly disgraced, and gone to jail for his felony (lying to a grand jury). This would have happened, even if the sex was consensual.
For instance, the many execs who got caught stealing billions in the Bubble (millions of victims), have mostly gone totally unpunished, and retired rich. But some poor kid who gets caught three times with a bag of marijuana (zero victims), gets a life sentence.
2. The second hole in our morality, is this: breaking the taboos about sex and procreation, is considered a far worse sin, than breaking the taboos about violence.
For instance, the Catholic Church believes that both U.S. Presidential candidates are violating basic moral standards that flow from their Respect For Life doctrine. Kerry supports abortion, while Bush has waged a war that doesn't meet the standards of the Just War Doctrine. Given this, you might think the Catholic Church would wash their hands of both of them. But no, instead, they are pushing a very public campaign, to deny communion to Kerry. Some are even saying, anybody who supports Kerry should be denied communion. No similar effort is being made, to condemn Bush for waging a war of aggression that has killed thousands. The Catholic Church's priorities are clear.
For instance, a President who lies about sex gets impeached, but a President whose Big Lies takes us to war (Bush), doesn't. And a President who breaks the law by trading arms for hostages, and using the money to wage dirty wars in Latin America (Reagan), goes to his grave unpunished, praised in all the eulogies for his moral certitude.
3. The concept of individual responsibility is dead and gone. Liberals say, "He's not to blame, the gun did it. Or his daddy beat him as a child. Or his mommy didn't read enlightened bedtime stories to him every night." Conservatives say, "He's not to blame. The corporation (a legal person) that he runs, did it. Or the CIA gave him bad intel, so he couldn't help lying to Congress and the UN. Or it was a Lesser Evil." Everyone's motto is: The Buck Stops Nowhere.
4. Our morality assigns a value of zero, to the lives of non-Americans. Our various wars, from Vietnam to Iraq to Serbia, are popular in America, until we start worrying about how many Americans are dying. The number of Others we kill, has zero influence on public opinion. As a coralary, we habitually ingore the sovereignty of all other nations, while fiercely defending our own. |
