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If there\u2019s one idea that encapsulates the Founding Fathers goals, it\u2019s this: Equal Justice. A responsive government that worked \u2013 literally and figuratively \u2013 for the citizens, was a means to that real end: a political system wherein everyone \u2013 everyone \u2013 was treated the same.<\/p>\n
Last week a Congresswoman opined that Vice President Pence would be impeached, just as soon as they finished impeaching President Trump, because ‘Pence would be no good.’<\/p>\n
As no charges have been brought against President Trump, never mind any sort of impeachment vote in Congress, never mind any hint of Mr. Pence having done anything wrong, one might well ask what this really means.<\/p>\n
Such comments \u2013 and they\u2019re legion, and other behavior (the incessant leaks, the continual shopping for judges to issue injunctions even after Supreme Court rulings, the \u201csniping\u201d commentary by elected officials, etc.), should concern everyone, whether you love Trump or hate him, because this isn’t how our government works. But, that\u2019s precisely the issue: those saying and doing these things, the people insisting that there must be new forms of justice \u2013 to include some members of Congress \u2013 they don’t care. They use the words of government, but what they seek is simple power.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more to this than simply: “one side won the election, the other lost.\u201d After all, we\u2019ve had 57 presidential elections and chosen 45 different presidents. To be sure, there\u2019ve been hotly contested elections: 1800, 1812, 1828, 1861, etc. But, there\u2019s something decidedly different since last November, and we need to look at what lies behind it all.<\/p>\n
Not to get too esoteric but, there\u2019s an important philosophic point to make: if you hold certain beliefs, you can\u2019t meaningfully hold certain other beliefs. You can\u2019t be for both government healthcare and free markets, for example. Further, to hold certain beliefs, we need to understand them. That means we need common values and a common understanding of what words mean.<\/p>\n
Important words \u2013 justice, fairness, equality \u2013 either have an accepted, fixed meaning – or they don’t. You can\u2019t believe in equal justice and also believe the definition of justice is ever changing. If justice is a fixed mark, we can hold our leadership accountable to that mark. But if justice is flexible, defined by the leadership, then we\u2019ll never be able to hold accountable our elected or appointed leaders.<\/p>\n
Yet that\u2019s precisely the real struggle, a struggle over the nature of government and the understanding of virtually all values. And the philosophy that\u2019s driving this intellectual struggle, that\u2019s driving the progressive movement, is postmodernism.<\/p>\n
Michel Foucault, the late French philosopher and a leading proponent of postmodernism, stated: \u201cIt is meaningless to speak in the name of\u2014or against\u2014 Reason, Truth, or Knowledge.” This idea, the meaningless of reason, truth and knowledge, is central to the philosophy of postmodernism.<\/p>\n
Postmodernism doesn’t speak about an \u201cindependent reality,\u201d nor about \u201cabsolute truths;\u201d for postmodernists there is no objective knowledge. Everything is subjective, and “histories” are collective; individuals are only identified inside social groups (sex, race, ethnicity, wealth, religion, etc.), and histories emphasize conflict between groups.<\/p>\n
Therefore the only things that matter are these social groups (sex, race, etc.), and the conflicts between the groups. But that really means power. And because there\u2019s no objective truth, no absolute right and wrong, there can be no meaningful attempt to be on the side of truth or right. Instead, what really matters is who wins.<\/p>\n
There is, of course, the other side; Reverend King observed that: \u201cI am not interested in power for power\u2019s sake, but I\u2019m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.\u201d But in the postmodernist world there can be no right, no good, no morals, for there is no agreed, objective truth, no reason, no knowledge.<\/p>\n
Western Civilization, evolving for over 2,000 years, is predicated on absolute truths, on clearly defined justice; where, despite our failings, the citizens work towards a single ideal of justice. Postmodernism asserts that justice of even 50 years ago is different than today, there are no fixed truths, and can be no fixed definition of justice. And that would mean the power of government could be wielded without meaningful restraint.<\/p>\n
Washington, Lincoln, King et al envisioned a society based on justice, equal justice. But equal justice requires objective truth. Postmodernists insist there is no such thing. We need to choose which side we\u2019re on.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2017 Arrias
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