I was talking with Mr. Green recently, and the conversation turned to the subject of President Biden’s handling of classified documents.
“I like that special prosecutor,” said Mr. Green, referring to Robert Hur, who was testifying before the U.S. Senate that day. "I think he’s a really good guy.”
Knowing Mr. Green the way I do, it wasn’t difficult to interpret what he meant. His reasoning was likely two-fold. On the one hand, the prosecutor was good because he had chosen not to prosecute, a fact that in Mr. Green’s mind showed that Hur understood this most basic of realities, which is that Trump (who is being prosecuted) is somehow fundamentally flawed regarding his character and Biden fundamentally virtuous. Secondly, the fact that the prosecutor didn’t let Biden off scot-free in his report satisfied the liberal tenet of skepticism for my friend, the idea that one should doubt even one’s own deepest moral convictions.
“At any rate,” said Green. “We’re all in trouble if Trump gets back into office.”
Now, I had heard this talk on television and read bits of it in news articles, but this was my first personal encounter with it, so I couldn’t help but want my friend to elaborate.
“But in virtually any discernible category, we were better off during the last administration,” I told my friend. The economy was better, the border was more secure, we didn’t have the foreign wars…”
Mr. Green shook his head. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Then what are you talking about?” I asked.
Green looked at me dumbfounded. “Why, he’s already said it. He’s going to prosecute his political opponents.”
When I asked if he meant something similar to what the Biden administration was doing now, he replied, “What do you mean?”
“You know,” I said. “What they’re doing to President Trump. There’s also Roger Stone and Paul Manafort…”
A quizzical look overcame his face. “That’s different,” he said.
“But how? It seems to me that your side is guilty of the very things you’re worrying the other side is going to do…”
Green shook his head. “Well, you’ll just have to see. Trump has already said what he’s going to do. But you should pray that we never get to that point.”
It was a bewildering statement. Not only was my friend unable to see his own side’s complicity in the very malpractices about which he was warning, but he was also unable to see perhaps an even greater problem, which is that the potential dangers of what might be done are somehow worse than the deeds themselves when done by his own side.
This reminds me of something Francis Schaeffer once said about relativism, namely, once universal values are no longer observed and respected, all that’s left is power. It doesn’t matter that the left is guilty of the very acts they’re warning the rest of us about regarding Trump because they have the power: they control Washington, the media, and virtually every other sector of concern in this country. Thus, we’re left to simply take their word in their estimation of things, even when it’s contradictory.
As with many of his ideas, Schaeffer seemed correct in this: when all that’s left is relativism, power rules the day. At least for now, this appears to be the world we live in. May it not last forever.
Along with his father, Allen Keller runs a lumber business in Stevenson, Alabama. He has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MBA from University of Virginia. He can be reached for comment at allen@kellerlumber.net.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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