OPINION:
I can’t help but notice that as President Biden commuted the sentences of killers, many of his liberal supporters applauded a young man accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on the streets of New York (“Dastardly deed being used as excuse to promote single-payer health care,” web, Dec. 20).
When Judeo-Christian values are jettisoned and replaced by a moral ethic that assigns value based on an oppressor-oppressed narrative, the traditional understanding of right and wrong is inverted. You end up with a society where sexual perversity and the killing of the unborn are good, theft of other people’s stuff is justified and even virtuous and premeditated murder is cause for celebration.
Illegal immigration, sanctuary cities and even many crimes are now romanticized by progressives. All are components of a critical theory worldview that views illegals — and minority groups in general — as exploited and oppressed. Atonement can be found by opening the borders, harboring illegals (including violent gang members and terrorists) and excusing the criminal behavior of oppressed groups who are seen as victims of an unjust society.
According to this ethic, moral agency is excused if the individual is a member of an aggrieved group — or is in New York to pump bullets into a member of the “oppressor” class. It explains not only the increased lawlessness we have in our society, but also the two-tiered system of justice we have, in which Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters can lay waste to our cities and escape meaningful repercussions. Meanwhile, many Jan. 6 protesters face enhanced penalties and possibly years in jail for walking through the Capitol.
Our founders understood that sustaining a constitutional republic would require a moral and virtuous people. Critical theory was not what they had in mind. It corrupts justice and is incapable of providing the foundation necessary for a republic to survive.
THOMAS M. BEATTIE
Mount Vernon, Virginia
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