America's real moral crisis: Not private morality but public morality -Robert Reich

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Dr. Reich is always good for a headscratch. His doctrinaire leftist screeds often defy logic. 

It no longer bothers us that this Rhodes Scholar never puts together a logical, reasonable presentation. This is because it is quite evident that Dr. Reich does not intend to explain things. His intent is agitprop, to throw up clouds of dust, to divert, confuse, and avoid.

The reader who is armed with this information will be better able to understand his writing.

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Friends,

At a time when the six Republican appointees on the Supreme Court — prodded by Texas, Mississippi, and several other red states — seem ready to reverse Roe v. Wade, it’s important to see the even larger context of what’s at stake.

For years, rightwing Republicans have focused their ire on private morality – on the most intimate aspects of peoples’ lives — including abortion, contraception, gay marriage, and which bathrooms and sports teams trans young people choose. (Let's properly rephrase this sentence: For decades, leftwing Democrats have focused on pushing private morality into the public– on the most intimate aspects of peoples’ lives — including abortion, contraception, gay marriage, and which bathrooms and sports teams trans young people choose. It is Leftists, not the rightwing, that has been pushing their morality on us. And when the rightwing objects they're accused of pushing their morality!)

But the real moral crisis in America today has nothing to do with private morality. The real crisis involves public morality. (There is no such thing as "public morality." The "public" is not an entity, so it cannot possess moral values.)

Consider, for example: (Dr. Reich will supply us with a leftist laundry list, none of which have anything to do with morality.)

— Several Republican members of the House of Representatives appear to have helped plan the January 6 insurrection. (The insurrection hoax is a favorite myth of the Left.)

— Top executives of Facebook have knowingly fomented divisiveness and hate in order to sell more ads. (Private activity is public morality?)

— Top executives of Big Pharma are buying off lawmakers to prevent Medicare from using its bargaining leverage to get lower drug prices for all Americans. (This is a legal issue. If this is happening, there needs to be prosecutions.)

— Most Republican lawmakers continue to put their party and their careers ahead of American democracy by accepting Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. (The claim may be true or false, but what has this got to do with any form of morality?)

— A handful of extraordinarily wealthy people are spending unprecedented sums bribing legislators to stop their taxes from increasing and preserve their tax loopholes. (This is a legal issue. If this is happening, there needs to be prosecutions.)

They’re also parking their money in secret tax havens. (Private activity is public morality?)

— State lawmakers are passing laws to suppress the votes of likely Democratic voters, (i.e., voter ID laws. Why the Left is opposed to people proving who they are before they can vote is a mystifying thing.)

and forbidding teachers to tell their students about America’s history of racism. (That is, forbidding racial indoctrination.)

— CEOs of large corporations who now earn 300 times the wages of average workers (up from 60 times forty years ago) are refusing to raise the wages or benefits of hourly workers (whose pay has barely increased in four decades, adjusted for inflation). (Um, yeah, no. Our local McDonalds cannot find workers, even at $18/hr. to start.)

Meanwhile, they’re off-loading jobs onto so-called “independent contractors” who are cheaper because they get no labor protections. (Dr. Reich dives even deeper into leftist agitprop. He apparently doesn't understand that some people prefer to work for themselves. And, he doesn't seem to understand how expensive it is to have employees.)

They’re also bribing legislators to give them and their corporations special favors and tax breaks. (This is a legal issue. If this is happening, there needs to be prosecutions.)

If these don’t spell a moral crisis, I don’t know what does. (Yup, he doesn't know...)

I understand why some of you may be reluctant to talk about morality. (Reluctant because the Left shouts anyone down who expresses their personal morality in any way. Of course we're reluctant.

But now Dr. Reich wants to co-op the term "morality" and apply it to leftist political issues, which of course imposes leftist morality on everyone. It used to be that it was wrong to impose one's morality, but now that the Left has "public morality," this is no longer true.) 

The right has hijacked the term. (The Right, having moral standards founded on objective standards, has always governed their lives according to that morality. The Left, not governed by any sort of discernable morality, co-ops the term "morality" and deems their pet issues to be matters of morality.

As is typical for the Left, they accuse others of what they themselves are doing.)

And the subject seems uncomfortably close to matters of personal faith and religion. Private moral choices are matters of personal faith and religion — and should stay that way. (But... Dr. Reich has just supplied us with his list of moral outrages! Why does he get to talk about his morality while we cannot?)

But public morality is entirely different. (Undocumented, unexplained statement. Dr. Reich makes a summary assertion without proof, discussion, or defense.)

I urge you to speak out about it, make a ruckus about it, and loudly condemn corporate executives, Wall Street bankers, and lawmakers who are defying the common good. (Whoa. This is a revelatory statement. Dr. Reich swerves into a moment of honesty. According to him there is something called "the common good," which of course is what he and his leftists comrades define as good. 

Defying this is a moral failure. That is, there is a collection of do's and don't's, carefully defined by leftist ideals, and defying them is an issue of morality, for which we are certain would carry severe sanctions.

We hope that people like Dr. Reich will never gain majority status in our government.)

Take morality back from the radical right — in a way that’s profoundly relevant to the challenges we face today.

America’s real moral crisis has nothing to do with people deciding to end their pregnancies, or consenting adults choosing to use contraceptives, or trans young people choosing one bathroom or sports team over another. It has to do with the actions of people in boardrooms and legislative cloakrooms, and the failures of so many who occupy positions of power and public trust to honor the public good.

What do you think?