A Tale of Two Moralities
Moral and Legal Authority
A government with moral and legal authority promulgates written rules and universally, impartially and uniformly enforces the rules, which provides a predictable and stable legal order on which to base economic and personal decisions. The law prevails, not the proclamation or arbitrary decision of a ruler, government bureaucrat, the enforcer (e.g., policeman) or judge.
A Tale of Two Moralities
Attempting to atone for falsely blaming the Tea Party types for the Tucson shooting, Paul Krugman, of the New York Times, acknowledges the irreconcilable conflict between proponents of command and control government and small and limited government activists.
One side of American politics considers the modern welfare state — a private-enterprise economy, but one in which society’s winners are taxed to pay for a social safety net — morally superior to the capitalism red in tooth and claw we had before the New Deal. It’s only right, this side believes, for the affluent to help the less fortunate.
The other side believes that people have a right to keep what they earn, and that taxing them to support others, no matter how needy, amounts to theft. …many activists on the right really do see taxes and regulation as tyrannical impositions on their liberty.
Noticeably, Krugman laments the Republicans drift from the progressive/liberal agenda:
Commentators who pine for the days of civility and bipartisanship are, whether they realize it or not, pining for the days when the Republican Party accepted the legitimacy of the welfare state, and was even willing to contemplate expanding it.
Yes, Krugman and his government elites want to continue taxing and distributing benefits as they deem proper. However, their opposition is not the Republican politicians. Very clearly, a majority of Americans have lost respect for the federal government.
The American people are appalled at the conceit, corruption and incompetence of an authoritarian and imposing government. Some examples of incompetence and corruption: Vietnam, the Great Society, Watergate, stagflation, Iran Contra, Iraq nation building, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Abramoff, AIG bailout, the union takeover of General Motors, Afghanistan, the Cornhusker Kickback, TARP, persistent unemployment, trillions of federal debt, the arrogance of DeLay, Pelosi, and Rahm Emanuel, and the manipulations and bribes used to pass recent healthcare and financial legislation.
Americans sense that a restricted and limited federal government will significantly curb the immoral abuses of power.
Alas, the American people also know that many states and cities have been mismanaged. However, the America voter has more power to cause reform locally, and thus is rejecting the egotism, scheming and corruption of the power elites in DC.
