A return to first principles ...

A return to first principles is one of the first acts of an incoming administration.  The Democratic party, in the persons of the Secretary of State is now in the process of revealing its first principles through its operations.  Secretary of State Clinton, speaking of the topics that she planned to raise on her first visit to China, said, "We have to continue to press [China on issues relating to human rights] but our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises ... We have to have a dialogue that leads to an understanding and cooperation on each of those." (Source) In one succinct sentence,  human rights are subserviant to economic realities and the requirements of stewardship of the earth.

Whatever the good Secretary had to say, the Chinese were not waiting with bated breath to hear it.  They were diversifying their diplomatic assets, attempting to create closer ties with nations throughout the Southern Hemisphere and strategic regions in the Northern Hemisphere as well.  Their Vice President Xi Jinping is finishing up a tour of Brazil, part of a six-nation tour that "has already taken him to Mexico, Jamaica, Colombia and Venezuela, and will conclude in Malta" (Source)  The deal that he signed included a provisional exchange between the two countries; Brazil provides crude oil to China (over 100 million barrels) and China provides Brazil with a loan of up to ten billion dollars. (That is $10,000,000,000.00)  (Source)

China, it seems, is returning to first principles too.  "[Never] a borrower, [but only] a lender be."

... stirred up fitfully by the wind ...

Why am I so hopeful for the future of the conservative movement in this country?  It's not because Obama might not ever become our president or that if he does, he may cause the greatest crisis this country has ever faced thus vindicating the conservative movement in the minds of the great mass of undecided persons in the United States.  It's rather because Obama has been the vehicle for one of the greatest changes this country has ever seen.   In this campaign, both of the canidates talked with great earnestness about principles.  Ideas, for once have trumped necessities in the political arena.

Of course, ideals were not the only motivating factors in this election, nor were they the only things discussed.  Both McCain and Obama's acceptance speeches are full of generalized practicalities; how they intend to grapple with the failing economy or the multitude of wars that America is involved in.  The general consensus seems to be that Obama won principally because the People associated the economic downturn with President Bush, a practical consideration if there ever was one.  

However, everywhere I look in Obama's speeches, both the one that I witnessed personally, and others I have read, I see appeals to principles; calls to action with their roots in ideals, and their branches in trust, hoping for, rather than demanding, immediate results.  Though his actions do not follow through, his words are all rooted in faith, burgeoning with principle, and therefore fixed on their objective.  Taking his acceptance speech as an example we have the principles:

• That’s the promise of America — the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper ...  Man is not an atomic individual, but a member of a community, and as such, has certain duties and responsibilities towards others.
• Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education ... Truth ought be passed on.
• nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent ... No one should suffer, even materially, for doing good things.

And on and on this goes, for pages and pages.  And McCain does the same, in response.  The only two canidates with any chance of being elected both felt that they had to address the roots of the issues as well as the practicalities.  Either that, or neither had very much to say and so they retreated into the rhetoric of ideals.  To be sure, it sometimes looks as if it was the latter case rather than the former, with Obama holding up the elimination of temporal suffering as a goal achievable in this life, and appointing persons who have demonstrably lacked principle in their own lives to important positions in government.  Regardless of the intention behind the words -- or the clarity of the thought that animates them -- the fact remains that the speeches were given, the appeals to principles were made, and Obama was elected by the popular vote, President of the United States.  Now that Jack is out of the box, he will be far harder to put back in.

More on this next time.  To God be the glory.

Always launch with the tide

And so it is, that on the night of November the fourth, in the year of our Lord 2008, the people of the United States chose to elect Barack Obama, former Senator of the United States, to the office of President of the United States.

They say that the boat goes off easiest when it is floated off with the tide. And if one thing is certain, it is that the tide is flowing right now. Our president elect has made a great number of promises with rhetoric which even a poor student of philosophy like myself can recognize as excellent. (Read our president-elect's victory speech for yourself.)  If I could delude myself into believing that he means the same things by his words as Thomas would mean if he said the same I would be completely gung-ho for this president.  However, I cannot even begin to delude myself about that.  He has promised to do too many things.

• He has promised to sign FOCA into law the minute it arrives on his desk; and with a Democratically controlled House and Senate it will be on his desk the minute he walks in on his very first morning.   
• He has promised that he will bring the troops back home from Iraq, and avoid foreign adventuring ... save where he deems it absolutely necessary. 
• He has promised to reduce taxes and pour billions of dollars into various and sundry government projects ranging from heavy investing in clean energy technologies to improving the school system with (wait for it) more money and more oversight.

A pro-abortion, counter-constitutional, slice-of-the-same-old-Chicago politician is now president of the United States.  Which might not be all that bad a thing for this country in the long run.  In the short however, social conservatives have been dealt four years of total war, for the principles that they hold dear.  

Drummer boy, beat to general quarters!