Does "moral authority" really matter?

[theboss]

I've posted on this subject a few times, and I think it's obvious that while I respect what Mrs. Sheehan is doing in Texas, there is an under-current to the story that bothers me.

And Christopher Hitchens - who I know everyone now hates but who I still enjoy as a writer - may have found the point for me in his latest offering on Slate.com -

http://www.slate.com/id/2124500/nav/tap1/

It's also the biggest problem I had with John Kerry's campaign. It also, I suppose, relates to Paul Hackett. And it is the concept of "moral authority." John Kerry apparently had more moral authority on issues of war and peace than W did because he served with distinction in combat. Paul Hackett had moral authority on Iraq because he served there. Bush has no moral authority on Iraq because he hasn't forced his daughters to enlist (though why we would want a father to force two twenty-two year old women to do anything is beyond me). And Mrs. Sheehan is the ultimate example of "moral authority" - the grieving mother of the war dead.

Hitchens doesn't hit on this point exactly, but he comes close to it. And it has been perculating in my mind since, well, I guess since long-time anti-war activist and Senate Dove Kerry made his military service the centerpiece of his campaign.

I think I can finally articulate the problem I have with fetishizing this concept - it silences me. I've never been in the military; I have no plans to be in the military. Next to waking up and finding a Chinese tank on 495, there are few circumstances in which I would join the military. My dad served during the Vietnam era, but was stationed in Europe. None of my grandfathers served, even during WWII.

I have no children so I can't lose any of them to war. I have no brothers and sisters. None of my cousins are in the military. I have a few friends in Iraq but none of them have (thank god) even been wounded yet and most are home now.

So...what authority do I have to speak?

And more importantly, why should anyone have more authority to speak than anyone else? If Mrs. Sheehan and a pro-war mother are in the same room, what happens? Who do we listen to? Because apparently, both of their opinions are among the most important we can hear.

I think what it comes down to is that the Sheehan episode to me relates to the ongoing lack of an articulate message for the Left in general and for Democrats in particular. We are lacking any kind of true message at the moment so we are looking to present the best messengers we can find. And the idea is to find the most pristine messengers available so they cannot be argued with.

[TahitiNut]

1. I personally regard that as an oxymoron.

:shrug:

[BootinUp]

2. You might want to duck!

How you can like Christopher Hitchens is beyond me. What part of the Cindy Sheehan statement he ridicules do you not agree with?

[theboss]

9. I just realized what is really bugging me

I miss being in power. I find the fact that the entire world of Left-wingers at the moment is revoling around a little patch of grass in Crawford, TX just deeply deeply depressing.

I want to have my people running the country again. Not engaged in performance art.

[BillZBubb]

3. Moral authority gets you in the door only.

Your argument has to win the day. Someone who has participated in a war brings an initial credibility to the discussion, but that's all. Someone who has lost a loved one in a war brings the experience of that loss. Their voices should be heard, but not necessarily agreed to. No one among them has greater moral authority. Their opinions should be taken as equally genuine and not to be dismissed.

You also have moral authority/duty as a citizen to discuss, criticize, or support any government policy. Because you were not personally touched by a policy doesn't exclude you. It's your reasoning for the position that determines whether you are right or wrong.

[caitlyn]

4. I don't think "moral authority" matters or even exists in war

Whenever a nation is at war for long enough everyone loses somebody, whether it's a family member, a friend, someone you admired, etc... Look at the Israeli-Arab conflict. You cannot find one Israeli or one Palestinian who has not been personally touched by that war. Not one person, not on either side. I also don't think losing someone makes anyone somehow an expert on anything other than pain or loss, nor does it grant authority.

War, by nature, is immoral. It can be justified only in self-defense or to stop an even greater evil. I think the latter argument could have been used vis a vis the Nazis in WWII. That does not change the fact that war itself is an evil. Nobody can gain "moral authority" by participating in an immoral act. Certainly nobody gains "moral authority" by killing people even when the act can be justified.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. The "moral authority" is only in reference to commenting on war.

By definition, moral authority has nothing to do with morality. It is with having learned the moral, the theme, of the story of their life.

Someone who is cheerleading for a war, who has no military experience and never served in combat, has absolutely no moral authority to speak on the subject. Simply put, they don't know what they're talking about.

When I get into it with a freeper of the above type, I can use my limited experience with the military (grew up with it, served in peacetime) to tell them they don't know what they're talking about. My experience has taught me something of the moral of the story.

When I am talking to a combat veteran, I will give the respect the vet deserves. I know enough to know that in the thick of it, the vets weren't fighting for mom and apple-pie; they were fighting for each other. Most of them have learned that war is abhorrent, some didn't.

Repubs and freepers tend to be the ones that don't learn.

[PST]

6. he's a proud member of the republican smear campaign

look how he tries to link Sheehan to David Duke.
he's a pathetic drunk who's always looking for extra attention/money just like the other rightwing hacks. no (journalistic) principles, just in it for the dough..

:puke:

[mmonk]

7. Anyone who is against

a war launched on lies and deceit has the moral authority over any who launch such a war. It's pretty damn black and white to me.

[karynnj]

8. I thought Kerry had more moral authority

because of his principled stand based on morality against the war.