After hearing about Colin Powell's weekend interview, I spent some time thinking about principles and men of principle. Before bed, I rewatched parts of two of my favorite movies: Chariots of Fire and A Man For All Seasons. As I thought about why I liked Eric Liddell and Thomas More, I realized it was because unlike Powell, these men stood on principle, even if it led to their death.
Powell and Monarchists like him like to talk about Compromise. It's become a political buzzword that shows you're amicable and wise and a good person, and if you won't compromise, frequently people will not vote for you. However, in order to compromise, you must have common ground.
Contrary to what the good general believes, it was war, not compromise, that founded this nation. In fact, for years, the Continental Congress and its ambassadors had attempted to compromise with King George, who proved intractable. Indeed, the wording of the Declaration proves the point: "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them to absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and establish new safeguards for their future security." How on earth do you compromise with a tyrant? A little tyranny is still tyranny just like a little slavery is slavery, a little cancer is still cancer, and a little genocide is still genocide. When the king would not deal, we severed ties and marched to war, not to compromise. His ignorance bemuses me.
While the Founding Fathers compromised in the formation of the Constitution, they did not compromise on its principles. While they changed their attitudes about how to represent the people in the legislative branch, they still had a bicameral legislature. While they compromised on the abolition of slavery, they did not establish it. After all the revolution required some people to first emancipate themselves before they could emancipiate the rest. While they argued about the details, the overarching principles remained intact. Based on common ground, they were able to hammer out a government far removed from that of their parent nation, which had proven itself adverse to compromise.
Moreover, when the Constitution was finished, they did not impose it on the people like Obamacare. They sent it out to the states and the people for ratification, and the fight was brutal. Eventually it was adopted, with changes. Obamacare skirted the states and the people. In fact, Nancy Pelosi said we need to pass the bill to find out what's in it. What in thunder? Pelosi is the one without a principled position.
More and Liddell are my heroes because they stood on principle. I love watching Liddell and More tell off the peers of the realm and tell them they will not compromise on principle. Those are the real heroes, not the Powells, the Gang of Six, the Gang of Fourteen, John McCain, and other members of the GOP intelligentsia. Those men would have demanded that Washington negotiate with Cornwallis, that Patton negotiate with Rommel, and that Schwarzkopf make peace with Hussein. Oh wait, they did that last one, and look where it got us. With a Monarchist, compromise means something other than what you hear. Statists never look at conservative proposals and say “this seems like something with which we can work or on which we can compromise”. That road only cuts one way.
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