Sober Judgement

     The handout reading for this assignment, Clues to Critical thinking says, "critical awareness of what our leaders are doing and the ability to understand and evaluate what they tell us is the lifeblood of democratic government.” 
     
      In his article from the Patriot Post, Feb 2, 2016, “When anger trumps all,”  Daren Jaonescu explains, “The reason no one can figure out whether Trump is a conservative or a liberal, a Democrat Trojan horse or a patriot, is precisely because the one thing we know about him, from his record and his own self-descriptions, is that his political speech and action are for sale whenever he sees personal gain in the deal. No one who loves America would spend thousands of dollars supporting politicians hell-bent on destroying her and then defend himself by saying it was good for business.”
       
     Daren Jaonescu, takes a deeper look at "who" Donald Trump really is, what his real motives are and cautions the voter to be aware of the danger of letting anger rule our reasoning and conscience, which he states "is the enemy of sober judgement."  Jaonescu points out that Trump supporters, ironically, have “chosen to vent all their anti-establishment anger against Cruz,"  when in reality it is Trump who boasts of making deals with the establishment, donating large sums of money to the left party and avoids criticizing key players in the establishment but, openly criticises and refuses to support any nominee from the his own party.   

     Daren Jaonescu, has a PhD in philosophy and teaches English language and philosophy at a University in South Korea. He is a strong advocate of home-schooling your children, and author of many political articles including, “100 reasons to abandon public education now.” We get the idea he is an anti-establishment guy.

    Trumps past and present behavior demonstrate that he is "politically unprincipled, delusionally self aggrandizing, habitually duplicitous, and profoundly unserious."  I am more convinced than ever that, as Jaonescu says best, “Unbridled anger in politics threatens both those succumbing to it and those victimized by it.”  

“The good it does, is done poorly; the harm it causes, is done very well.”

     Successful gardening takes knowledge of the crops, the soil, weather, humidity, planting seasons etc. Gardening in Texas, as I learned, is much different than gardening in Colorado. The first year I planted a garden here in Austin, I tilled the ground, fertilized well, selected the best seeds, and watered and weeded faithfully, but my garden grew slowly and lacked the hardiness I usually saw, so I worked harder, watering more often, tilling and fertilizing, everything I tried failed and my garden died.

I eventually took the time to learn about planting crops in Texas, what plants grow well here, what pests lurk about, and when to plant what. Having an understanding of the environment was the ingredient for success.

     

     Not understanding the role of Government, its purpose, the reason for which it was created, is like trying to grow the wrong crops the wrong time of year, under the wrong conditions.

     In John Horvat II's article, "When government does good things poorly,”  he explains that we have let the government “assume powers and absorb functions that are contrary to its nature,” or the purpose for which it was created. Horvat further states that when the Government “stays within its limits, less force and money are needed to maintain it. People are willing to sacrifice and even die to defend the nation.” But when it “abuses its power, it becomes a great straitjacket to force strict compliance to the law, it no longer facilitates virtuous life in common.”

     I feel like Horvat explains the role of government well in his article found in the American Thinker, whether your liberal or conservative, take a moment and read it and let me know what you think.