the 9-12-13 Penny Press

THE PENNY PRESS,SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PAGE 9Commentary: Luke HamiltonThe Right Thing to Do: APresidential Broken RecordIn what is becoming the most pedagogic Presidency in memory,President Obama has demonstrated his fondness for putting on hisrhetorical tweed jacket and lecturing the people who put him in office.His professorial roots are ostentatiously displayed on issues across thepolitical spectrum, but no phrase of his is more threadbare than hislabeling of something as “the right thing to do”. Despite the fact that thisstatement is devoid of meaning in the morally-relativist world in whichPresident Obama believes he lives, he seems to use it daily for one subjector another.We were told that passing his healthcare law was “the right thing to do”.Offering amnesty and federal benefits to the children of illegal immigrantsvia his DREAM act was also “the right thing to do”. As was extending thetax credits for so-called clean energy companies. Right-things-to-do alsoinclude making the tuition tax credit permanent, supporting No Child LeftBehind, the repeal of DADT, re-upping the Payroll Tax, and supportingclean energy initiatives, or at least that’s what we have been told. Mostrecently, he has pontificated to the American people that exerting militarymight against the Syrian government is “the right thing to do”.How trite has this phrase of his become? In a 2010 speech inYoungstown, Ohio, the President used the phrase 18 times in one speech,including 9 times in a 200-word stretch at the end of his written remarks.It’s enough to make one wonder if there is anything which isn’t the rightthing to do, but of course we know the answer to that question. Theunspoken assertion which accompanies the-right-thing-to-do designationis that acting against the President’s suggestion is the-wrong-thing-to-do.So opposition to Obamacare, the DREAM act, repealing DADT, attackingSyria, or really anything President Obama supports, becomes effortexerted for the “wrong thing”. This is a subtle but effective tactic whichhe uses to great effect.It allows him to frame the topic at hand in terms of absolute morality,while he keeps his foot in the camp of moral relativism. If he were amore intellectual man, it could be credited to him as a brilliant politicalmaneuver, but since his particular brand of cunning spawns from theChicago School of Politics it’s more likely that his stance is pragmaticrather than strategic. On issues ranging from abortion to homosexuality,the President has clearly demonstrated that he believes controversialissues are to be determined by one’s own morality which has been shapedand developed by life’s experiences. Certainly his own “evolution” on theissue of same-sex marriage has demonstrated that his view of morality issubject to change. Yet he patronizes the American public with statementsthat blatantly assert that there exists a right thing to do!So which is it, Mr. President? If your innumerable statements aretrue, then it means absolute morality exists. It means that there is indeeda “right” thing to do, which in turn means that there is a “wrong” thing todo as well. So let’s have that conversation. Too often, a fawning mediaand rubber-stamp intelligentsia have given this maneuver a pass, when itshould be acknowledged and questioned:“How do you determine the right thing to do, Mr. President?”“Who’s ‘right’ are we talking about here? Is this the right thing forall Americans? If so, how do you know? What is the source of thisconviction?”“If absolute morality exists, as your position is affirming that youbelieve, can we revisit some of your more ambiguous policy positionswhich seem to be based on the presumption that morality is relative to theindividual?”“For instance, when you state that abortion is a personal choice whichyou support, are you taking the position that a) abortion is only right orwrong according to each individual’s personal beliefs, or b) abortion is amoral good for America? I will advise you that selecting Option A willinvalidate the 3,000 times you’ve called something the-right-thing-to-do.”“ If there is a right-thing-to-do when faced with the choice betweenextending the payroll tax holiday or not, then there is certainly a rightthing-to-dowhen faced with the choice of having a doctor kill a baby ina womb or not.”For too long this type of intellectual dalliance has been toleratedwithout challenge. We have allowed our ideological opponents to dictatethe terms of our engagement and they have done so in a manner whichassures their victory. What choice has the President left those whooppose his proposed course of action? The opposition is forced to choosebetween absconding from their ideological position or affirming supportfor something which has been labeled the-wrong-thing-to-do.It is the equivalent of a baseball team which instructs the umpireto give the tie to the runner when they’re batting and to give the tie tothe defense when they’re fielding. Sadly, the umps in our game areall too willing to allow this arrangement and our team manager is tooincompetent to protest. It’s up to the American people to rail against theinconsistencies of moral relativism and if that doesn’t work, to evict ourmanager in favor of someone who has the stones to do his job.LUKE HAMILTONwww.pennypressnv.com