Sunday, March 5, 2017

While it is ever more late in the day, the fight has not gone out of those upholding what is good, right and true

Thought-provoking Noah Rothman piece at Commentary on the disconnect between the Trump administration's views of how the notion of states' rights plays out with regard to marijuana policy vis-a-vis "transsexual" bathroom "rights" policy.


The question remains: Why does the White House think transgender bathroom rights are a state’s rights issue but recreational intoxicants are not? What is the logic? It’s surely not legal and it’s definitely not deference to political expediency. If the administration was truly committed to eschewing all forms of prosecutorial discretion, why does Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) remain on the books? What we are left to conclude is that the administration is displaying fealty to the traditional views of the vastly underestimated social conservative.
President Donald Trump is many things, but socially conservative isn’t one of them. Although he does have a healthy antipathy toward substance abuse, the president initially expressed dissatisfaction with a North Carolina law compelling its citizens to use the bathroom of their gender at birth. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has no such qualms about policing virtue. After all, “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
Social conservatives have been woefully misjudged and unduly dismissed. In embracing a compromising figure like Trump, they have sacrificed consistency for power—a tradeoff many no doubt feel is a desperate measure called for by these desperate times. Yet the social conservative’s tendency toward martyrdom by fighting long ago lost cultural conflicts has not abated. The fact that a new offensive is coming does, however, communicate clearly to their detractors that social conservatism’s days are far from numbered. Maybe that’s the whole point.
One point on which I would take issue with Rothman is his use of the term "long ago lost cultural conflicts." You either conduct yourself in your role as an engaged citizen based on furthering God's kingdom, or you surrender to the dark force.

Yes, that is an absolutist position.

There is no other worth embracing.

That said, I would urge caution where the effective way forward appears to be that of "sacrific[ing] consistency for power."  Consistency is in such short supply today in post-America that it wouldn't take much at all for such a tactic to render moot any gains achieved thereby.

This nation is starved for clarity. Let not the record show that it was us that finally killed it off.

12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Speaking of clarity, are you drinking again, appearing to agree with Sessions' clueless statement?

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  4. I don't base my assessment of Sessions - his character, the principles he embraces, or his fitness for jobs like Senator or AG - based on what he has to say about marijuana.

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  5. I understand. It's a trivial issue of course. Except when it comes to jailing those who ingest it, especially in states that have legalized by majority vote after years of struggling (and enduring arrest, criminal records, jail, and even property seizure). Oh well, we shall of course see how this all goes down and what the eventual consequences are at the voting booth. And we shall also see how Seasioms himself makes out over his alleged perjury during his confirmation hearings. He can't be that principled as he has been on board with that tyrant Trumo since early in his dastardly game.

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  6. Toodleoo & enjoy your toddies now and forever and remember to always adhere to moderation if that's one of your principles now.

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  7. Because if you still imbibe the most dangerous beverage ever known to man throughout history and might perchance overindulge, although of course among the very best of principled humanity, you are of more danger to yourself and others than any marijuana user I've ever been around, despite their evil, what else might be the opposite of that principled redneck named Jefferson Beauregard Seasioms III?

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  8. This guy says the Holy Redneck's got to go. I know it's an opinion piece in the so-called New York Slime by your ilk, but this guy is Richard W. Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, was the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007. Chief White House ethics lawyer when? During Cheney-Bush's 2nd term: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/opinion/jeff-sessions-needs-to-go.html?mc=aud_dev&mcid=fb-nytimes&mccr=USGMDesktop&mcdt=2017-03&subid=USGMDesktop&ad-keywords=AudDevGate&_r=0

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  9. But too trivial an issue for ya. Jail on.....

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  10. There's no denying that Sessions handled this poorly, but it does not rise to the level of nefarious conduct, and the linked Times article does not prove it does.

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  11. There's no denying that Sessions handled this poorly, but it does not rise to the level of nefarious conduct, and the linked Times article does not prove it does.

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  12. People who try to conflate Trumpism with conservatism are immediately recognized by astute socio-political observers who think they are getting away with disingenuous argumentation but are really showing off tier ignorance.

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