J.T. Young Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

"The power of the Right is principle, and the principle of the Left is power.
Understand this and you will understand the basis of modern politics."

by:	J.T. Young served in the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2004 and as a congressional staff member from 1987 to 2000
Source:	"What It Means That The Right Is Animated By Principle And The Left By Power," 4 Sep 2017 https://thefederalist.com/2017/09/04/means-right-animated-principle-left-power/
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Categories:	Power, Politics, Principle
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Reader comments about this quote:

If you consider the Right to be the limited government, morally based conservative thinker, J.T. is right on. However, in the traditional political spectrum, the Right believes in "no government" and the Left is "socialism or total government". Those of us that consider ourselves conservatives, believing in natural law, personal liberty, and constitutionally controlled government are actually centrists. We have let the Left frame the conversation and cast us as the extreme of the spectrum. -- Deever, Garnett 1
Most politicians are into power. Hillary's life depended on power and now that she lost it her life is near over. -- jim k, austin 1
Right/Left definitions vary depending on how one initially defines one half of the equation, the other half is simply an opposing definition. I tend to define the Center as Principle, and any variation from the center as the Lesson to be learned -- the farther off-center, the greater the disharmony. It is more a Top vs Bottom situation. Using a right/left argument for Principle implies there is a balance between right and left, meaning Principle should always be countered with Power to prevent its dominance. Does that make it 'right'? There is Truth and everything else -- must Truth be balanced with untruth? Stick to the center -- it takes two wings to fly, and that doesn't mean good on one side and bad on the other... Liberation from dualistic thinking frees the mind. -- E Archer, NYC 1
I agree with the comments above. Left and right have changed meaning so often and so many times, it would have to be defined here for me to accurately comment on it. One modern day use of left and right is found in the administrations of socialism (Communism = left, Fascism = right). Both left and right here are antithetical to natural law, justice, and individual sovereign rights. If left is socialism and the right is ???, another conclusion would be drawn. On a scale of natural law, justice, individual sovereign rights with a body politic being recognized as servants only (not rulers / no authority to rule or create law but, to administer, for the purpose of enhancement and protection, individual sovereign rights - not representing the individual person but rather, the rights thereof - being on one side; every thing else would be on the other. -- Mike, Norwalk 1
This quote is no longer relevant...if it ever was. The logic for our nation's creation was a belief in the fundamental principle (according to the "Laws of Nature and Nature's God" as "Self-evident" "Truths"...) that all people are created equal and "endowed" ..."with certain unalienable rights." Neither Democrats or Republicans...or even libertarians advocate for a US foreign/military policy that would apply this fundamental principle to all the world's people. When the founding father's failed to incorporate this 'law of nature' into engineering the Constitution...that cost more American lives in our Civil War than all the wars since then combined. Failing to codify it in our foreign policy will cost us more...if not our nation as we know it...when others acquire biological WMD or use a couple nukes to wipe out our electrical grid in an EMP event. -- Anonymous, Rockville, MD 2

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