PRESIDENTS DAY HAS BEEN PERVERTED BY MODERN POLITICIANS
February 12, 2001
MARINA DEL REY, CA--Presidents Day honors the integrity and principles of presidents, but modern presidents don't deserve such an honor. This is because modern presidents and politicians don't stand for anything, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
"Compare the moderns with the Founding Fathers," said Edwin A. Locke. "The Founding Fathers asked themselves what was right; the moderns ask themselves only what is expedient and will 'work' for the range of the moment."
Locke blames modern politicians' lack of principles on their acceptance of pragmatism as their guiding philosophy.
"Today's politicians have been taught that nothing is fixed or absolute, that there are no objective truths, that human reason is incapable of knowing anything with certainty, that everything is whatever anyone wants it to be," Locke said. "November's presidential election was testament to this modern sickness of political pragmatism, and a horrifying example of how low our modern presidential candidates can stoop."
The very idea of an unyielding, absolute principle is incomprehensible to the moderns, Locke said. But it is precisely the unyielding principles of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that made them great. The modern presidents' lack of principles deprives them of any historical or moral stature.
Ayn Rand Institute senior writer Edwin A. Locke is available for interviews.
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