WorldNetDaily: The left thinks legally, the right thinks morally

WorldNetDaily: The left thinks legally, the right thinks morally

This analysis has disturbing aspects to it. Lawrence Kohlberg had a theory of moral development that he originally defined in six stages. The final, sixth stage could not be scientifically borne out so he shaved the theory back to five stages.

The relevance here is that the fourth stage of "law and order" or moarality defined by societal legislation perfectly fits with Prager's description of the Democrats. The fifth stage or morality defined by the greater principle of societal good which law may strive to accomplish by usually fails. Henry David Thoreau's civil disobedience is seen as a means of forcing law to rise to the greater principle. I do not mean to imply that Kohlberg subscribed to Thoreau, but I do suggest that Thoreau was exhibiting a theory that fit with the fifth stage of moral development.

Back to the point, if the Democrats are focused on hyperlexis, or heavy reliance on law, as a means to define morality, they are in the fourth stage. In the Kohlberg model, by definition then, they would have no unified moral structure to verify if those laws themselves are moral.

That verification process are what articulate Republicans should push. Verification of accomplishment of goals causes most Democrat programs or proposals to fail: more money for schools but no testing; more money for welfare without standards of accomplishment (e.g., workfare) to move back to self-reliance; more money for government healthcare without standards to measure if quality of service or speed of service can be retained.

Republicans should state their vision and how they want to measure if we are accomplishing the vision: a measurable, accountable system for success and most importantly improvement.

The reason capitalism works is that it is the only self-healing economic system. One person does not need to decide that more wood is needed in hurricane ravaged Florida. The price goes up, many suppliers jump in.

The problem with morality by law is that it is not self-healing. Politics faces the issue for a moment then moves to the next issue without fixing problems left in the law. Medicare costs continually rise, but no system will fix it a little piece at a time. The Medicare system has to creak so loudly that Congress can no longer ignore it.

Republicans agree that we should care for the less fortunate. We just want systems that will improve themselves without continual legislation. Republicans want a moral system that leaves less to the law to fix, because the law is too slow. As a lawyer, I prefer to rely on a string of cases going back 50 years because it is predictable. New legislation won't be clear for 15-20 years as to what it truly means. Just look at the McCain-Feingold mess this year: what rules apply to the 2004 presidential race?

Morality at the fifth level creates more predictable behavior and stable societies with each person having more liberty. Is that bad?

Why do the Democrats want to cause a different result?