Kevin Nicholson, who was a Marine officer--just in case you haven't heard that--has his very own dictionary.
....."For those that have said that leading
Marines in combat during the course of two wars does not qualify as
conservative credentials need to look inside them and decide what they
think conservative credentials are."....
Umnnhh.....well.....I think Kirk said it a lot better.
...It has been said by liberal intellectuals that the conservative believes
all social questions, at heart, to be questions of private morality.
Properly understood, this statement is quite true. A society in which
men and women are governed by belief in an enduring moral order, by a
strong sense of right and wrong, by personal convictions about justice
and honor, will be a good society—whatever political machinery it may
utilize; while a society in which men and women are morally adrift,
ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites,
will be a bad society—no matter how many people vote and no matter how
liberal its formal constitution may be....
You will note, Kevin, that being an officer in the Marines and leading men into combat was not mentioned there. (FYI, it's not mentioned in any of the rest of Kirk's essay.)
There's more:
...In a genuine community, the decisions most directly affecting the lives
of citizens are made locally and voluntarily. Some of these functions
are carried out by local political bodies, others by private
associations: so long as they are kept local, and are marked by the
general agreement of those affected, they constitute healthy community.
But when these functions pass by default or usurpation to centralized
authority, then community is in serious danger. Whatever is beneficent
and prudent in modern democracy is made possible through cooperative
volition. If, then, in the name of an abstract Democracy, the functions
of community are transferred to distant political direction—why, real
government by the consent of the governed gives way to a standardizing
process hostile to freedom and human dignity....
Meaning that if you go to DC, you'll lead the charge to revive the 9th and 10th Amendments. Right??
Now, then. If you really wanted to say "I second Kirk!!", then you should make very clear that you wholeheartedly endorse every single word, including the red ones.
I'll grant you a mulligan, Kevin, assuming you can endorse these principles (and all the rest at the link.)
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