The Nation's Moral Compass
by Robert Russo
Looking back at last year some weeks seem almost starved for liberty-related news, and yet in the past week there has been too much for one blog to keep up with. Two political frontrunners have been attacked within their own parties, an American embassy has been targeted, 143 million pounds of beef was recalled for destruction when there was nothing wrong with it, in our own General Assembly there have been bills to create an immunity center for domestic spying, police roadblocks for random seatbelt inspection, and the number of posts to this site is three times the norm.
What does all this have in common? First let's look at the unusuality of presidential frontrunners being targeted by their own parties. When Sen. McCain took his commanding lead in the primaries the flack over him not being a true conservative reached a new viciousness, reporters saying "he needs to court the conservative base".* Or what? They'll vote for a liberal? Then he was hit with the accusation of an affair with a lobbyist (which is hard to believe).** Republicans have claimed the conservative platform as their own for many years along with the "winner take all" strategy of voting to support the party rather than the individual. What possible reason could they have to cast doubt on their own candidate?
A photo of Obama wearing a turban was released, a reference to the infantile joke that he is a Muslim. No one actually thinks this, it is simply a jab made for the sake of jabbing, and was immediately attributed to the Clinton campaign,*** campaign ethics a major topic in Tuesday's Ohio debate.**** Last week Tim Russert of NBC made the startling suggestion that if Hillary does not have the most delegates, her goal might be to persuade the national convention to change its rules.***** "She should have taken the high road" one reader told me.
This backstabbing doesn't necessarily come from those who have something to gain from it, it may be a dig itself at Clinton or not even the person who originally posted it. Campaigning has become a season for anyone with dirt to throw it with no motive but destruction, because they can't resist. The same press that exposes cruelty makes this possible, except these people have no identity besides the brief fame of their spite. Defaming candidates is of course the tip of the iceberg in the rise of cruelty and indifference in this country. Every type of crime (school shootings being one) is seated in the human brain, and we are swiftly approaching a reality where if it can happen it will happen, and law enforcement responding by expecting us to be criminals. People used to refrain but that moral base is gone.
A study put out this week says that almost half of American adults have either changed their religion or abandoned it entirely, saying the "religious marketplace is extremely volatile".****** Strange words for describing the only cure for the demoralization of a nation. We'd like to think liberty is a purely secular thing (we have certain rights to be respected regardless of what we do with them), but only when honesty and decency are a majority does a nation trust us with greater liberties; it is when depravity and apathy become a majority that they are taken from us. So freedom stands on the politic of morality. It is in our best interests to repair our nation's broken moral compass.
The scope of human crimes and depravation that we have yet to see is unestimable and that is why faith is the only solution, because it is the answer for every type of sin. You can disagree with a candidate but if he or she seems to follow a moral code that is better reason to elect than what those positions may be. As for the beef recall, schools and groceries are now burying an amount that could have fed a small African country as a political punishment on the manufacturer.******* The unusuality is the same as last year's outrageous traffic fines and everything else, the precedent being broken is decency.
*http://2008mccain.blogspot.com/2007/01/mccains-race-for-nomination.html
**http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23271556/
***http://www.drudge.com/news/104626/clinton-staffers-spread-obama-turban-photo
****http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/26/dems.debate/index.html
*****http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23111899/
******http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/business/18recall.html?ex=1219035600&en=08aaf36bf033a261&ei=5087&excamp=GGBUbeefrecall&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=BI-S-E-GG-NA-S-beef_recall
*******http://news.aol.com/story/_a/survey-finds-religious-landscape-in-flux/20080225170509990001
If you have opinions to add to this thread send them to russo@richmondliberty.org and they will be posted. We welcome your input!