Opus 2019-080: Principles and Promises

If I were ever foolish enough to run for elected office I would make sure that my campaign was based on principles and not promises.  One of the current hot topics is immigration.  A promise to close the border is almost impossible to achieve.  Saying that we should build the wall shows where your heart is.  Saying abortion is wrong is not the same as promising to make it illegal. 

One of the problems with campaign promises is that there is often a lot you don’t know about an issue.  Suppose I was running for city council in San Francisco.  If I were making promises I would claim that I would rid the streets of feces.  Since it is a constantly renewable resource, that would really be impossible.  Instead I would say that I believe the streets could be much cleaner than they are.  Press me and I would give more principles but when any one of the city workers’ unions could put a veto to a program, details would be useless.

We need to focus on principles.  I realize that it is not an instant cure.  Promising “transparency” in government didn’t do much to make things clear.  Like any move to improve our lives and our country it requires constant attention by individual citizens.  Sometimes that will involve being the one who calls “foul” and other times simply supporting that prophet.  It has been a long time since I read “The Kings New Clothes” but if I remember correctly it was not the child calling out the king was naked that embarrassed the king.  It was the adults that were shaken out of their stupor, looked at each other and saw the truth in other eyes.  That was the moment things began to change.

So even if you can’t be the child, be the adult.  Look for opportunities to stand on principle.  You and I may disagree on when life begins but we can agree that killing innocent children is not the answer to pregnancy.

At least I hope we can.

homo unius libri