If all we were ever to do were to be to look out for our own personal self-interest, we would be mental and moral midgets. Unfortunately, the self-styled liberal Thomas Frank endorses the limited view of voting on the basis of one's own economic interests in his book WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? HOW CONSERVATIVES WON THE HEART OF AMERICA (2004). (Disclosure: Like Frank, I grew up in Kansas specifically in Kansas City, Kansas.)
Inasmuch as businesses narrowly look out only for their business interests in economic terms, business-people are mental and moral midgets. But many businesses have learned to take other considerations into account, such as environmental impact.
Inasmuch as our legislative actions take into account only the economic interests of the wealthiest among us, then we as a people are mental and moral midgets contemptible people, as distinct from honorable people.
If we Americans do not expect our elected and appointed public officials to act honorably and do honorable things in office, then why in the world do we address them with the title "The Honorable"?
Honor is the name of the game, Mr. Samuelson. When we Americans today cease to be motivated by honor, then we become like Shakespeare's character Falstaff, who denigrates honor as an empty-sounding word.
As I've intimated above, many Christian preachers in the United States today see themselves as carrying forward the hortatory preaching tradition of Amos and Isaiah, especially in the debates about abortion and gay marriage.
But Christian preachers in the United States today are not the only people in the United States today who are carrying forward the hortatory preaching tradition of Amos and Isaiah. Arguably the most famous secular example of somebody in the United States today carrying on that prophetic tradition is Noam Chomsky in his political writings.
So let us be clear: Legislative proposals usually involve values. As a result, debate about any given legislative proposal usually involves debate about values.
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