Ronald Reagan used to speak that way about America. Today, as I’m processing recent news, I’m seeing some problems with America’s evangelical mission. <\/p>\n
The two things that stand in stark contrast to me right now are our ideals and our system. In other words, do we intend to be an example to the world because we believe the right things — in freedom, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, etc., or, for some people, because we follow the demands of wokeness — or do we intend to have and demonstrate a fair and just system? <\/p>\n
Of course some people think it’s ridiculous for the United States to see itself as an example of anything except racism and injustice, but there was a time when we held up our system as an example of fairness in practice, as opposed to the raw exercise of power. <\/p>\n
What I’m getting at here is a question of ideals vs. procedures. Every dictator has ideals, but he cheats and lies and murders to get the power to enforce them. We’re supposed to be different. We should strive to have good ideals in a good system, but there have been some fault lines between the two. <\/p>\n
For some people, it’s all about the ideals, and process or procedure is a distraction. Recall Pelosi’s reaction when someone asked her where the constitution allowed the government to do health care reform<\/a>: “Are you serious?” <\/p>\n As a general rule, it seems the left is more often guilty than the right of pursuing whatever means necessary to attain their ends. “Ideals above rules and procedures” is a defining characteristic of liberals, and “but you have to do it this way” is a defining characteristic of conservatives. But the right can be criticized on this point as well. E.g., Lindsay Graham proposed one set of rules when it came to Merrick Garland and another when it came to Amy Barrett. And Trump has shown a disregard for the truth to press his agenda. <\/p>\n This break between ideas and rules is a fundamental error. Rules and procedures are the instantiation of our values. You can’t believe in free elections and commit voter fraud. You can’t believe in free speech and shut down speech you don’t like. You can’t believe in personal liberty and allow protestors to burn down private property. <\/p>\n Is it just me, or is this a growing problem? Is the connection between ideals and rules falling apart? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ronald Reagan used to speak that way about America. Today, as I’m processing recent news, I’m seeing some problems with America’s evangelical mission. The two things that stand in stark contrast to me right now are our ideals and our system. In other words, do we intend to be an example to the world because … Continue reading “A city set on a hill”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions\/817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}