The Moral High Ground - What's That?

Nobody in the current administration seems to know although a few seem to be figuring it out much too slowly and much to late.

Paul Waldman writing in TomPaine today, spells it out for us.

Here's part of what he said. The rest is worth your time as well.

And when progressives (and the occasional conservative) question whether such actions betray our values, the answer from Bush and his supporters is that we should be measured not by our principles—or by any principles at all—but by the actions of our enemies. The moral high ground is to be found no more than one step above the worst thing terrorists have done lately. The president may order the use of sleep deprivation and “stress positions” to induce mental and physical agony in prisoners—but hey, he hasn’t personally chopped anyone’s head off, so you know he’s on the side of the angels.

But it is moral poison to measure yourself by the worst acts of your enemies. This is what conservatives have brought to America; the time since 9/11 has seen a moral descent—if not an outright moral deadening—on the part of the right.