The Principled Democrat

If the principled democrat is truly principled, he must not really be democratic, at least in some spheres, for principles imply some things are beyond the political sphere.
If the principled democrat is truly a democrat, then he must not really be principled, for whatever the masses say is his principle- and the masses are a capricious lot.

I've just described the left and the right on that lunatic line that dominates U.S. electoral politics.  The principled are deeply upset right now, and it was one of slickest things ever done by progressives to insist that democracy would be an American principle.  What a brilliant way to create self-defeating enemies.

The left, well, I am not really sure there are any true democrats.  I tend to think they insist on doing these things because they think if we were actually capable of thinking, we'd think like them. A self-deception- they are very egalitarian as long as you conform to their self-image. It is very hard for them to realize people who don't believe like them are thinking, and if they realize we are thinking, then it is nearly impossible for them to not think we are some sort of evil that needs to be stamped out.

But we get a chance to see the reality of our politics- decade long affairs well known in D.C., drug out into the light by the F.B.I., probably expressly to sweep Benghazi under the rug and crush whatever remaining resistance the military might have to the current civilian government.  Maybe someone has read their history- crush them now, before they get a chance to make the grand march to Rome?

A desperate fight for power, the real sort, which ought to put the folks who are the principled sort on notice.  You want as little as humanly possible decided by government.  If we could get to the point where we could close the doors and turn out the lights, we should rejoice.