“The middle is always evil”

By Tom Quiner

Should we compromise with evil?

This begs the question, what is evil?

Let’s consider two quick contentious political issues: the fiscal cliff and abortion.

Regarding the fiscal cliff, is it an evil policy to drive our country into bankruptcy?

Is it evil to accumulate so much debt that we condemn our children and their children to poverty?

Every thinking American knows that is where we’re headed. The CBO and every single government actuary is telling us this.

The numbers don’t lie. We are quickly heading to financial armageddon if we don’t get spending and entitlements under control.

And yet the president only offers us a tax increase on the wealthy. If he gets his way, this tax increase will generate enough revenue to run the government for 200 hours.

That’s it.

Keep in mind that starting tomorrow, the rich will be hit with another tax increase via Obamacare. They will begin paying taxes on their health insurance plans.

The president won’t talk about spending, only a tax increase (on top of another tax increase) that does nothing, absolutely nothing, to solve our crisis.

The president and his party reject thinking Americans’ concerns. Fair enough.

So here is the question: should Republicans compromise?

Consider abortion. How many times have you heard someone utter the remark that “although I’m personally against abortion, I can’t impose my [values/religion/personal opinion] on someone else.

Democrats are screaming that it is time for Republicans to compromise on abortion. Some Republicans are getting weak-kneed.

With loud voices, they call on men of principle to compromise with evil.

John Galt gives a unique perspective in his famous soliloquy from Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand’s alter ego gives people of principle much to ponder:

“There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

The man who is wrong still retains some respect for the truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, who is willing to sit out the course of any battle, willing to cash in on the blood of the innocent or to crawl on his belly to the guilty…who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway.

In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win.

In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.

In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromiser is the transmitting rubber tube…

When men reduce their  virtues to the approximate, then evil acquires the force of an absolute.”

“The middle is always evil.” Words for men of principle to ponder.

Happy New Year.