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ID: 112652
Date Added: 2006-04-21 Date Modified: 2011-01-19
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In some of the circles I travel the expression "principles before personalities" has some credence. The wordist in me has sometimes riffed that into "principles before principals". Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Regan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama are all, for better or worse, principals. Seems to me our struggle includes principles (many of which we share which is part of what brings us to huddle together in various ways). Seems to me the Principal Principals in U.S. politics also share principles or pledge allegiance to a common set of principles (with some differences of priority from regime to regime). We can want to hold the Principal Principals to accountability on our principles and that can be the basis of our activism. There will be discussion and debate on how frustrating that can be along the way. But we certainly have the right to point and holler when the Principals run for election on one set of principles and then rule with another under the guise of not having a choice but to respond to an inherited mess. Now our finger pointing and hollering may not have much effect.... and may be a waste of time... unless we find a way to huddle and develop activist programs which are not just personal expression of individual principles. Will our principles ever be become principal? If I have any kind of accurate assessment of this huddle my answer would have to be, probably not. Some of us will always be dedicated to principles that situate way out front of the waves... All that being mused I'll say that from my point of view it is The President who must be first in line for accountability in America's official behaviour in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and elsewhere; by action and by inaction, by fault and by default. If military interventions outside America by past principals were imperial then so are the same actions by the current principal representative of American political principles. Their positioning defines them. Our positioning defines us.
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Principles Before Principals
Passing Times