I heard it again this morning: Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) was on Meet the Press, and she said, “It’s about right and wrong.”
I don’t mean to pick on Congresswoman Sewell specifically. In the past two years, I have heard many people saying forms of “It’s not about left and right; it’s about right and wrong.” Mark Williams wrote a book with that title in 2014 — actually, the title begins It’s Not Right Versus Left, but you get the point. Don Lemon said it on CNN last August. No advocates of any one viewpoint have a monopoly on this expression. But what does it really imply?
A Quick and Dirty History of Early Modern Politics
Medieval Europe was Christian Europe, and political ideals were informed by religion. In practice, there was a temporal ruling class, and politics was always going to enter through this doorway. Yet, at least formally, the legitimacy of a temporal ruler depended upon his upholding the laws of God.
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