On Conservatives and Socrates

Wow. It's been while! These 50-hour work weeks are taking my writing time, but I couldn't resist spending part of my weekend responding to a recent item on Facebook which suggests that Mitch McConnell seems to have directly contradicted himself, saying, in 2001, that a sitting president is “entitled to tilt the (Supreme Court),” and in 2016, that under certain conditions, the entitlement is marginalized, and the vacancy “should not be filled until we have a new president.”

Maybe Mitch didn’t mean to contradict himself. Maybe it’s not even a contradiction! I mean, here we are looking at both statements as though they directly conflict with one another. Maybe Mitch could explain how they do not. Maybe we should wait and listen more closely to him.

I sympathize with Mitch. I too am inclined toward Conservatism, and I seem to contradict myself when I attempt to express truth. Many times my words and actions nullify my proclamations on truth and belie my Conservative leanings. I know it and admit it.

I also know that what follows is philosophical, and therefore a bit difficult to appreciate. Loosely speaking, it’s grounded in Socratic thinking, about which most of us don't know squat, and therefore don’t think, and really don't give a rat's ass anyhow. But too often, we don’t examine the mud hole we’re caught in, and Socratic thinking can help us understand this mud hole:

Some believe that virtue is finite and that they, and all other people, are irrevocably flawed and therefore inclined toward doing that which works toward their private good and toward the harm of others. This, they would say, is why we have the “letter of the law,” to guide our wayward tendencies.

Some believe that virtue is infinite and that they, and all other people, are basically good, and therefore inclined toward doing that which is right and just and fair. The “letter of the law,” they would say, is incapable of expressing and applying true virtue, and therefore, the “letter of the law,” if we must have one to keep peace among us, must be constantly revised.

Although most of us don’t comprehend, or care to comprehend the state of these matters, nearly all of us gravitate toward one extreme or the other. That’s the nature of politics. We either fear human nature, or we trust it. That's the real distinction between Conservative and Liberal, Democrat and Republican.

Still others try to escape making this choice. They attempt to transcend ("rise above") the whole business and discern the "real truth," but we’re only human; we’re not very good at it. Mitch McConnell has tried. However, as you can see, his proclamations reveal inclinations toward Conservatism. I’m not certain what Mitch thinks about liberals, but I'm quite certain he’s doing his best to rise above prejudice and proclaim a pristine truth, free of any overt bias.

I’m like Mitch. I'm inclined toward Conservatism. But unlike Mitch, I will say that I'm completely aware of that weakness. I regard my reaction more as a "gut level" response than a philosophically grounded tendency, and as I make efforts to rise above it while examining truth, I will also admit that I even admire true Liberals in certain ways. I wish I could see things just a tiny bit more as they do. Then perhaps I could really transcend and get closer to the truth.

Once my friend (Patrick Arnold, by name - not his entire name) got us out of a mud hole by chaining a tree trunk to the drive axle of a doodle bug and carefully rolling us forward. He’d drive over the wood, then unhook it and chain it up again ahead of the wheels. We were both under sixteen years old at the time. I thought it all looked a little nuts at first. I had no idea what he was doing, but I trusted him. I was amazed. His solution seemed miraculous! One minute, we were stuck to the axles in muck. About ten or fifteen minutes later, we were out, continuing on down the logging road.

Politically, theologically, philosophically, financially, and in practically any way you wish to describe it, this country is in a mud hole. What was once called the middle class is spinning its wheels furiously, producing incredible wealth. The muck-a-mucks - that’s what Mom used to call the filthy rich - are draining all that energy off and pocketing the cash.

Muck-a-mucks are perfectly aware of this reality. They LOVE their mud hole. To divert us from our true problems and keep us spinning our wheels, they’re intentionally clouding every legitimate issue by supporting those who express popular prejudices with bombastic language. Yes, I believe it's that simple. That's where a large share of our major problems begin and end.


We have to quit throwing crazy language around and stop hiding in our Liberal or Conservative “principles,” many of which are actually prejudices. We need to stop dismissing the thoughts of others as nuts. We need to give a rat’s ass at least, and listen to all possibilities, strive to transcend our own prejudices, and participate in the process of finding compromises that will at least keep us going. In a diverse culture like ours, maintaining balance is the only way forward.