Politics and Government in America

Several weeks ago I had an interesting exchange with a left wing European. It was rather educational, because it represented the type of thinking that Barack Obama wants us to embrace. It went something like this.

Liberal: Barack Obama has made torture illegal which proves that he’s smarter than Bush.

Me: Actually, the CIA stopped using those techniques about four years ago.’

Liberal: So, Obama said that they would never be used again. He understands.

Me: So what exactly is torture?

Liberal: Waterboarding, for one. The people who did that should be punished.

Me:  I saw a video of some protesters waterboarding someone during a protest. Should they be tried under anti-torture laws?

Liberal: No because the person they waterboarded was a volunteer. The people at Gitmo weren’t.

Me: So your saying that waterboarding itself isn’t torture, just the way it was administered.

Liberal: No waterboarding is torture.  Anyone who does it should be punished.

Me: So then, the protestors should be prosocuted?

Liberal: No, because the person being waterboarded volunteered.

Realizing the merry go round I was on, I decided to get out while the getting was good. You can see the logic that liberals like to use. In this conversation 1+2=3, but 2+1 does not. To be honest, it was a simple question. It boils down to the question is waterboarding a crime? If the answer is yes, it doesn’t matter if the person getting waterboarded is a volunteer. However, if it is okay to waterboard someone who is a volunteer, then it is not a crime. Another way of looking at it is that is not okay to kill someone just because they volunteer, therefore human sacrifice is illegal in all circumstances.

This is a prime example of how many liberals think. There is no absolute right and wrong. Morality is circumstantial  and is determined by what political benefit it has for the person. I remember back several years ago, a liberal senator was charged with several ethics and criminal violations. His own journals were introduced as evidence and his response was that he had lied to his journal.

This is the type of future Barak Obama envisions for America, a future where everything is decided not by whether it is right or wrong, but by who it benefits. That is not a road that we need to go down. Amazingly, he wants to take us down this road while claiming that he is restoring our moral authority in the world. The world is looking to the United States for moral leadership, but following the crowd down a path of fuzzy morals and a subjective view of right and wrong is not the way to provide it. You have to laugh at the left, but don’t let them sucker punch you while you do it.