Sunday, August 23, 2015

Nature's God and Common Good v. The Donald et. al.

Alan Keyes occupies a lonely place in punditry; he sees the Declaration's phrase "...laws of Nature and Nature's God..." as having great weight--far greater than most of us want to acknowledge.  He also reminds us that those laws are absolutely necessary for "the common good," whether they are convenient or not.

So what does that have to do with Trump and mutatis mutandis, all the rest of the candidates?

...If, in material terms, we built a nation that fulfilled for a time so many of mankind’s material dreams, it was because, all along, we have invited people to come to our New World, bringing with them their best hopes. But like the master of the biblical wedding feast, we also demanded that they live by the God-endowed commitment to justice and the self-disciplined exercise of right. For that fulfilled commitment is the saving grace of rightful human liberty. So we are not supposed to welcome the enslavers and beheaders of innocent humanity, or any others who despoil that grace, whatever their motive or excuse.

On that account, secure borders and the lawful regulation of movement and immigration across them are not selfish aims we pursue only to serve ourselves. They are part of the ethic of liberty we must demand of ourselves and of any who sincerely wish to add their light to the beacon lamp of righteous liberty. To represent their last, best hope, we must preserve it, as a people, in the land we hold, in sovereign trust, by the authority of its Creator. For we are bound, by our vocation as a nation, to lift up that “lamp beside the golden door,” on behalf of decent human beings, both within the bounds of our constitutional sovereignty and wherever people strive, as we do, to reach the God-intended destiny of decent human life.

What we've seen of (R) candidates so far is that to one degree or another they have no 'center' in their campaign statements, platforms, or rhetoric.  That 'center' has to do with those laws referenced above, AND the "common good," a phrase almost NEVER uttered in political discourse and, sadly, even less implemented in law and regulation over the last 50 years or so.

Keyes has a lot more on the topic.

...The problem with Trump and the quisling GOP has to do with political character. It has to do with the tenor of Trump’s entire life as an unprincipled materialist, doing whatever it takes, giving money to whomever he has to, to serve his selfish interests, with no thought for the common good of our nation, and no commitment to it. The problem is his utter failure to speak to the moral purpose, not just of our immigration policy, but of our very existence as a nation. He is a man who says nothing that doesn’t serve some selfish interest, whether it is true (e.g., the facts about the damaging impact of elitist sponsored illegal immigration) or a corrupting lie (e.g., single payer health care is ideal). Now he is inviting the American people to debase itself to the same level....

So in the end, The Donald will 'make a deal', just as have all the Ruling Class creatures.

But will the deals they make be consonant with the Declaration's 'laws' or the Common Good?

Recent history tells us that the answer is no.  

That, my friends, is the underlying and almost un-stated cause of the current turmoil in the nation.  Keyes nails it.  Which is why he's such a lonesome voice.

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