Sam Youngman, a former Hill reporter who splashily departed the Beltway's sewers to find self-reflected virtue in Lexington, Ky.--or, as Jonathan Chait described Youngman's self-promotional metamorphosis, "[from] his descent into a state of moral turpitude ... [he] has become a morally superior human being"--reports from said virtuous bluegrassroots that Sen. Rand Paul's allies in the state legislature are laboring to change the state's horribly unvirtuous law that prohibits said U.S. senator from pursuing reelection as senator while pursuing the presidency as well, although, or so Youngman further reports, Paul's state political allies have said they have chatted with Paul about the proposed statutory change "only in passing" (emphasis mine).
Yeah I know, that's a really long opening sentence. But I couldn't imagine consuming more than one sentence to convey to Mr. Youngman this simplest of truisms: If he's actually searching for virtue, he's in the wrong racket, whether it's national, state, or local.
Youngman's piece does contain one perfectly truthful statement. He has mastered both sanctimony and hypocrisy. His piece drips with it.
Posted by: Peter G | December 22, 2013 at 10:03 AM
The great virtuosi of a cosmic love of humanity and goodness, whether stemming from Nazareth or Assisi or from Indian royal castles, have not operated with the political means of violence. Their kingdom was 'not of this world' and yet they worked and sill work in this world. The figures of Platon Karatajev and the saints of Dostoievski still remain their most adequate reconstructions. He who seeks the salvation of the soul, of his own and of others, should not seek it along the avenue of politics, for the quite different tasks of politics can only be solved by violence.
- Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation.
Posted by: Steve J. | December 22, 2013 at 08:37 PM