The Nine Principles

These are the magical “9 principles” that media pundit Glenn Beck claims are some sort of bedrock conservative foundation and/or civil religious creed by which we should shape our society.

1. America is good. 

I believe that the ideals and principles behind the founding of America are good ones — the Declaration of Independence (“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”) and the preamble to the Constitution (“in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”) are both, I believe, strong and useful moral and civil guidelines. 

“America is good” as a principle seems to imply that anything that America does, as a state and society, is good. That’s wildly prideful, and demonstrably wrong. America, as a human society, is subject to the same ills and sins as any other human effort. 

I say that without loving my country any less, but recognizing that it and its leaders and citizenry are no more without sin or flaw than any other human. I think, net, that America is a positive influence in the world, and that the opposite statement (“America is bad”) is no more logically sound and less rhetorically accurate — but starting a list of “principles” with an assertion of moral rectitude is a dubious stance to take. Nor is it in keeping with at least the next two items.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.  

Okay, I can go there. Though I suspect that my understanding of God and what His will is differs from others. Nor do I consider belief in God as a sine qua non prerequisite for citizenship and being a good, productive member of society. I know too many people who don’t consider God at the Center of their Lives to believe that.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.  

Honesty, truthfulness, transparency — those are all important qualities around the truth and integrity. (Though “honesty” can be used as an excuse for being a dick.)

Honesty, though, means being willing to ask, and face, difficult questions with integrity and courage. Too often that does not seem to be a hallmark of the conservative movement, which at various times treats questions as blasphemy, treason, or both.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.  

The family is a sacred personal responsibility. While I do not welcome the government, as an expression of society, poking its nose into my family, I recognize that there are family dynamics and situations that are harmful to family members within them (esp. children). Claiming “authority” here is much less important than accepting “responsibility” and “accountability.”

The irony here is that many conservatives, shunning governmental and society control over their families, don’t see any contradiction in laying down the law as to how other families act (or whether they should be families at all). See #3.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.  

Justice is blind — but mercy is a virtue, and recognizing that the law addresses normative behavior, not every circumstance involved in every situation, means that simply throwing the book at the accused, or even the guilty, is the sort of knee-jerk reaction that leads to injustice.

Further, it’s unclear how #5 and #4 coexist happily. “Don’t tread on me, but if I break the law I should be punished for it.”

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.  

Agreed. 

That said, it behooves society, while trying to promote personal responsibility, to not let folks fall too far without a safety net. “No man is an island” is also a truism, and that Constitutional preamble is not a call for a war of all against all.

So far as equal results are concerned, certainly it is unfair and untruthful to assert that everyone will or can achieve equally. Nor is it desirable. That said, it is in nobody’s interest to allow useless failure, nor is it deniable that too many folks hide behind this principle to justify racism, classism, prejudice, or a disregard of difference of circumstances related to outcome.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.  

Government cannot force you to be charitable insofar as it can force you into virtue. It can, and should, force you into mutual support of one another. That’s what a society is. We do not exist in a vacuum, nor is any man an island. Society finds value in success for all, even if that seems (like it did to the brother of the Prodigal Son) “unfair.”

8. It is not “un”-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.  

Absotively. No matter what conservatives in the post-9/11 period argued.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.  

Government works for — is the codified organization of — society as a whole. It doesn’t work for any one individual, but for all of us, any more than McDonalds “works for me” because I buy a meal from them at lunch today. The tension between the individual and society is very real; setting up a straw man opponent in “the government” (disregarding that in a representative democracy, the government represents the majority opinion of the citizenry) is dishonest and unhelpful , acting more to fulfill a personal destiny than look after the commonweal.

The government works for society. One of the things it does, though, is to protect each individual. We don’t answer to the bureaucrats per se, but to the nation and society in which we live, from which we benefit, and to which we lend our support and direction through our vote.

The conglomeration of “principles” here is an interesting mish-mosh of conservative bylines with very little internal consistency. America is “good” … but the government needs to be put in its place and spoken out against … except when it comes to enforcing the law … except for laws about families. Oh, and we’re all independent actors which the government shouldn’t be controlling … except for the law stuff again … except for laws having to do about my family or my charitable giving.

Next up … the “Twelve Values.”