Misunderstanding RIghts

 

There was a small controversy this week over comments by journalist named Heidi Przybyla about Christian nationalism. She did get something very important wrong, but it was not anything she said about Christian nationalism. It was what she implied about rights. People have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Whether one believes these rights come from a supernatural source or from the nature, quality, and value of humanity, the essential point is that they are fundamental and unalienable. They are not gifts from kings, courts, or legislatures, and are not contingent upon the approval of officials. People in North Korea have the same rights as human beings as Americans do. They are enslaved because their government violates their rights. Taking the term “Christian nationalism” to mean the religious aspects of today’s national conservatism, as listed in the national conservatives’ manifesto, her criticism is mainly valid, irrespective of how well or poorly stated. America is a secular republic with religious freedom for all. Any attempt to create an established religion or a government created Christian commonwealth is contrary to the principles and Constitution of our country, which is to say it is anti-American.

Lincoln's Birthday 2024

 

Yesterday was Lincoln’s birthday. I suppose there were speeches and celebrations in some places, but it seems that people do not celebrate it much these days – retailers aside. They should. It is good for people to see that such greatness is possible, especially these days. It is easy to be of two minds in thinking about today’s politics in light of Lincoln. A person can feel better about the political situation by remembering that he and the country he led faced far worse and more dangerous things than we do and came through successfully. So maybe we will too if we work at it. But he can surely feel worse after studying Lincoln and reading his writings and speeches and then looking at the sort of people who have sought and won the presidency in the last few years, especially at the leading candidates from both major parties this year. It can ruin a person’s lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next morning. Even worse it is not necessary to measure Trump and Biden against Lincoln or other great presidents to see how bad the likely present choices are. Comparing those two to Adlai Stevenson, Barry Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey, or Bob Dole would make the point well enough. It is a mess, and if nothing changes, we will suffer for it.

Time to Hang It Up

 

Yesterday the special prosecutor did not exonerate Biden as Democrats have claimed. His report said Biden knowingly broke the law in taking classified documents and keeping them when he was a private citizen. The prosecutor declined to recommend prosecution because Biden was cooperative with investigators, his offenses were less severe than the ones with which Trump is charged, and as a well-intentioned elderly man with failing memory, he likely would appear too sympathetic to jurors for them to convict him. The report contained various examples of seriously failing memory. (Attacks by Democrats on the prosecutor as some sort of MAGA agent are both silly since Garland picked the man for the job and hypocritical enough to make a person wonder how serious their worries about eroding respect for the legal system really are.) Biden’s problem is not his age. It is his mental condition. He gives easily noticed signs of being in some stage of at least intermittent dementia with memory loss. He is not fully up to the job of serving as president now, and will become less so over time. (A president is accompanied by the “nuclear football” with which he can order nuclear retaliation. We should hope that Biden or those functioning as Edith Wilson and Colonel House if things have come to that have delegated control of the football to someone, such as Secretary Austin, who is consistently up to the responsibility.) Pointing out correctly that Trump is an ignorant sociopath who often sounds like a raving lunatic changes none of the facts about Biden. The world situation is tougher than it has been since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the country needs a president who is competent, mentally and otherwise. Biden should pull a Lyndon Johnson.