April 21, 2017

Do the Right Thing

As American society becomes more tribal, society also becomes increasingly unstable and unmoored from civility. Americans are expected to take up for their tribe and defend it at all costs. The unfortunate outcome is that it can lead to not doing the right thing.

As American society becomes more tribal, society also becomes increasingly unstable and unmoored from civility. Americans are expected to take up for their tribe and defend it at all costs. The unfortunate outcome is that it can lead to not doing the right thing.

There are people in the United States who really would cheer on President Trump should he go out to Fifth Avenue in New York City and murder someone publicly. They would find some excuse to blame the victim, which might include insufficient loyalty.

The truth is there are Democrats who would do the same for Barack Obama. In fact, we can see this with President Trump’s travel and golf. For eight years Republicans complained about President Obama’s golfing and vacations while Democrats defended him. Now, Democrats have suddenly become concerned with the cost of presidential travel and golf playing, while Republicans no longer care. One progressive columnist declared it proof the GOP was racist. The reality is this is proof that both sides are partisan and tribal.

The New York Times made a very big deal out of reports the U.S.S. Carl Vinson was actually not headed to North Korea at the time President Trump said it was. This was not the president’s fault. The Pentagon had told him the ship was headed toward the Korean peninsula when it was not. But Democrats seized on this as a sign of further in competence.

Had this happened to President Obama, The New York Times editors would have celebrated his masterful poker playing and ability to bluff his way out of a tense situation with the North Koreans. Both sides have surrendered their intellectual honesty in favor of their tribes.

Democrats who have been protesting Bill O'Reilly were perfectly willing to defend President Clinton and his antics in and out of the White House. These same Democrats are horrified by President Trump being on his third wife and having several affairs. Meanwhile, some of the very same preachers who called for Bill Clinton to be impeached for his behavior are some of the most vocal defenders of President Trump’s behavior, claiming it does not matter.

But it does matter. There are still objective rights and objective wrongs. Morality and values still matter. To the tribes, however, it matters less and less. More and more Americans are willing to advocate for strong moral values, so long as they can use them against the other side. They will give their own side a pass on bad behavior so long as that bad behavior is directed outside their tribe.

It has been disheartening to see supposedly good Christians defend so much bad behavior by so many bad people, arguing that everyone in the tribe must defend the behavior or let the other tribe win. When one allows bad behavior to continue for years, turning a blind eye or covering it up, eventually it will come out and often at the hands of your political opponents. Yes, they do score a win and yes people will think you are caving to your opponents and letting your opponents dictate your actions. But what is missed along the way is that you only arrived at this point because you failed to do the right thing earlier.

Republicans defending President Trump’s excesses cede all the high ground when next a Democrat occupies the White House and behaves improperly. Democrats who refuse even a modicum of charity and civility toward President Trump cannot be surprised when Republicans behave as repugnantly with the next Democrat.

“But the GOP already did that to Obama” is no excuse when Republicans then say, “We only did it because of how you treated Bush.” On and on the tribal arguments and playground insults go.

We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. We all do things we should not and often we regret them. But we should not let the comfort of tribalism overrule the necessity of sincere apology and common decency. Failure to be civil does not mean we should abandon all attempts at civility. Unfortunately, too many people have decided tribalism trumps civility and common decency. We will all be worse off because of it.

COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.