Being Right

In my last post, I discussed my opinion that liberals are too concerned, in my opinion, with being right instead of doing right. Listening to the BBC World Service the other day, I happened upon a good example of the conservatives doing the same thing (in their opinion), and I think it demonstrates the dangers of focusing on being right.

The right-to-die issue is also an issue in the UK, it appears. The BBC had a person who supports right-to-die (essentially, euthansia for the terminally ill) and a person who opposes any form of euthanasia. The person who opposed euthanasia said something to the effect of, "If we allowed doctors to help terminally-ill patients to die, we would be valuing one life more than another life, and I don't think that is acceptable."

Now, think about that for a moment. Essentially, this person is saying, "I don't want to be accused of valuing one life over another, therefore, terminally-ill patients must not be allowed to die with grace and dignity." This person unintentionally demonstrated that she doesn't really care about the terminally-ill patient whose choice to die she is ignoring, but rather is only interested in herself and her own righteousness. She is more concerned with being right than doing right (what she thinks is right, of course, which personally I think is wrong).

And, not coincidentally, this is one of the issues on which the conservatives are losing. Slowly, but surely, the terminally-ill are getting more and more rights and control over the time and place of their deaths. Because, ultimately, it is difficult to convince other people that being right is more important than doing right. People don't care if you feel good about yourself at the end of the day. They care about whether they can feel good about themselves at the end of the day. And, at the end of the day, you saying you feel good about "valuing all lives equally" is not as convincing as seeing a terminally-ill person begging to die because of the pain.

That's where the liberals are in this country. We're telling Americans, "Vote for us because we are right," while the Republicans say, "Vote for us because we'll keep you safe, run the war in Iraq better, and keep guys from getting married to each other." Though the Republicans are lying (about keeping America safe and running the war, at least), their arguments are just more convincing, because they are talking about doing what they believe is right, rather than being right, as the left is doing.