With the approval ratings of Congress and President Biden dropping to historic lows and the number of Americans reporting that the country is heading in the wrong direction spiking to record highs, now would be an ideal time for elected officials in Washington, D.C. to assess honestly their job performances.  Are they causing Americans more harm than good?  Have they prioritized or abandoned their constituents' top concerns?  Has their obsession with the events of January 6, 2021 done anything to alleviate today's skyrocketing inflation making food and fuel unaffordable?  Has pushing the contentious issue of "transgenderism" in classrooms, businesses, and women's sports helped unite or divide the American people?  Has runaway illegal immigration at the Southern border made Americans more or less safe?  These are all good questions for any "public servant" seeking honest self-reflection.

Alas, "honesty" and "capacity for self-reflection" are not qualities usually attributed to politicians.  Consistently high numbers of Americans believe that elected officials put their own interests ahead of the country's, and a record number of Americans believe that the United States has "poor moral values."  The idea of a "moral politician" in D.C. would strike most Americans as laughable.

If we do not have "moral politicians" in charge, then what kind of people "represent" us?  Eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant provides a good answer when he distinguishes the moral politician from the unscrupulous, power-hungry politician in Appendix 1 of his treatise, "Perpetual Peace."  Whereas the former seeks to protect the natural rights of citizens and pursues policies that promote objective and universal moral truths, the latter rejects the inviolability of individual rights and subjectively twists moral-sounding principles to justify the pursuit of raw power.  In practice, Kant argues, immoral politicians manipulate citizens in three well known ways: 

1. They act first and then make excuses.

Does that sound familiar?  That's the Democrats' notorious "never let a crisis go to waste" mantra.

Did the American people ever get a chance to vote on mask or vaccine mandates?  Were they permitted an opportunity to weigh their personal risks of dying from COVID-19 against the severe economic costs of losing their jobs while large sectors of the nation's economy remained locked down?  Did parents have a choice as to whether their children's schools would be closed and their educations forestalled?  Of course not.

Without even the pretense of consulting American citizens or respecting their constitutional rights, bureaucrats and elected officials closed churches, broke up protests, urged social media companies to censor dissenting points of view, and coerced Americans to take an experimental vaccine before it had undergone normal long-term testing.

All these imperious actions were done for "our own good" and to "save lives" because "we're all in this together."  Yet two-plus years of health mandates have given officials extraordinary powers to control Americans' lives and livelihoods at the expense of Americans' free will.  At a time when politicians warn incessantly about the dangers to "democracy," life in the United States has hardly been "democratic." 

2. When they cause harm, they blame others.

America's economy is on the brink of recession.  Inflation is through the roof.  Americans are struggling with the worst price increases in their lifetimes at the gas pump and in the supermarket.  Parents are desperate to find baby formula.

Could it be that printing and spending trillions of dollars during the pandemic was shortsighted?  Is it possible that out-of-control U.S. debt and central bank "quantitative easing" devalue the dollar over time?  Is it likely that President Biden's Green New Deal policies have had their intended effect: to make it more difficult for energy companies to drill and refine hydrocarbon energy in the United States?  Is it possible that the administrative state's often-mindless issuance of regulations and rules for private businesses has inadvertently produced a nationwide infant formula shortage?  

That would make too much sense.  Inflation is "Putin's price hike" or the unavoidable costs of "climate change" or all COVID-19's doing.  High energy costs don't have anything to do with the president's oft-touted preference for transitioning the economy to a system based on wind and solar energy.  Americans' economic woes aren't the predictable fallout from Democrats' Build Back Better and Modern Monetary Theory spending proclivities.  Pain at the pump is all "Putin's fault."  

Of course, locking down much of the economy for a virus arguably not much more lethal than a bad seasonal flu was a choice.  Squandering America's hard-won energy independence and forcing the country to go "green" were a choice.  Spending money we don't have and sinking the United States deeper into debt was a choice.  Marching NATO up to Russia's borders without expecting war was a choice.  Using the "rules-based international order" to block Russia's energy exports into Europe and not planning for the grain shortages or fertilizer price spikes naturally resulting from war in Ukraine were choices, too.  Just because all these choices have created harm for Americans doesn't mean someone else is to blame.

3. To keep power, they divide and conquer.

A Biden presidency was sold as a victory for American unity.  Eighteen months into his term, does it feel as if the American people are united in common cause?

Surely the first act of any government truly dedicated to "unity" would have been to treat the events of January 6 with a light touch.  Whether seen as a political protest or a bit of naughty rioting, it certainly was not a "threat to democracy" comparable to 9/11 or the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, as Vice President Harris ludicrously claims.  Were MAGA Americans forgiven for their trespasses similarly to the way Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters were forgiven for their 2020 summer of rioting across the country?  No, they were not. 

Between Congress's show trials attempting to punish President Trump for the exercise of his free speech that day and the FBI's concerted efforts to paint anyone near the Capitol as an "insurrectionist" or "terrorist," it is clear that forgiveness and unity are far from the government's priorities.  Rather than extending any kind of olive branch to his political adversaries, President Biden continues to vilify Trump voters as extremists and racists.  

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice targets parents for objecting to the teaching of Marxist race theories and "transgenderism" in public schools, and the Biden administration insists that a "disinformation board" is necessary to regulate free speech.  These burn-and-pillage strategies have one thing in common: they heighten discord and divide Americans.  

Would you not agree that Kant seems to have described today's Democrats quite aptly all the way back in 1795?  Making excuses, blaming others, and destroying American unity almost seem like official government policies.  When immoral politicians seek only power, achieving any kind of peace (foreign or domestic) remains impossible.

Prayers answered: Thank the Lord and all His warriors here on Earth who helped overturn the moral abomination of Roe v. Wade.

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