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Today's New York Times contains an article about an Alabama state senator named Scott Beason, who is so conservative and such a maker of trouble that even his fellow Republicans find him dangerous. While the damage he's causing seems real, this is what I want to discuss:
"I don't mind standing up against anybody on my principles and my beliefs," he said.This may sound rather grand, but even his political opponents acknowledge that Mr. Beason is sincere.It's obviously true that in politics, a lot of people are gigantic phonies who adopt positions they don't sincerely believe in for the purpose of political expediency. This is not an admirable thing to do. But that doesn't mean that there's something terribly noble about having strong beliefs. Anybody can have strong beliefs. And if those beliefs are abhorrent, then you shouldn't get credit just for having them. Jeffrey Dahmer had a sincere belief that it was OK to kill people and eat them. No, I'm not comparing Beason to a serial killer (I don't know enough about him; maybe he is Dahmerian, maybe not). The point is that we ought give people credit for standing up for principle when there are powerful incentives not to do so, incentives to which they don't succumb -- and when there is something worth praising in the principle they're standing up for. The article notes that Beason "truly represents the politics of his district," which "is for the most part white, middle class, and deeply conservative." In other words, being a reactionary bomb-thrower is no threat to his job security. Maybe his colleague, the gay Democrat, was just trying to find something nice to say about him. But perhaps we can do away with this particular bit of praise. Lots of people said the same thing about Jesse Helms when he was waging racist campaigns and doing his best to maintain white supremacy -- you've got to admit, he has strong beliefs! But so what?"Scott very much has a core belief system that he really works for," said Patricia Todd, a Democratic state representative who is openly gay and avowedly liberal. "I disagree with him," she said. But, she added, "I respect him."
