Right makes might, not the opposite

Does might make right?

Is that right? No, ethically speaking it’s not right.

In fact, just the opposite: Right makes might.

It may seem that might makes right in the light of history. Russia seeks to use military power to invade and take over a neighbor’s territory. Other nations try to enforce laws against journalists or political opponents.

For some winning is all that matters, no matter how this is accomplished. The old argument goes that the end justifies the means. But the moral argument is that the means must be just in order to achieve a just end. You cannot lie, steal, and hurt those in your way to reach what you believe is a just end. The path to an ethical goal cannot be immoral without making the goal itself unethical.

Sadly, these days, it often seems that might makes right, winning being all that matters no matter what means are used. Political candidates say one thing when they mean another. Telling the truth appears less important than shading it to one’s advantage. We appear to have lost any sense of right and wrong.

I’ve been reading a great deal about and by President Abraham Lincoln, whose words and actions point the way to a morally grounded America. Lincoln stood for a cause greater than himself or even his party — a democratic republic with a guiding principle that all people were created equal, at least in the eyes of God.

On Feb. 27, 1860, Lincoln gave a speech in New York before a newly emerging Republican Party, Lincoln urged others to do nothing through “passion and ill temper,” restating his reasons for opposing the expansion of slavery into new territories. He then concluded, “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it.”

I wonder in our time if we still have faith that right makes might, that doing good is more important than winning elections, that our duty is to serve and protect the guiding principles of our republic as set forth in our Constitution and made clearer in our Bill of Rights?

We are still a republic in the making, continued by the commitments each generation makes to our guiding principles. Here are these principles as described in the Preamble to our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It is true that at the time our aspirations did not meet the realities of our situation. Women and African Americans could not vote. But as Lincoln thought, the founders believed as he did in 1860 that the goal was to expand democracy, not restrict it. He indicated that slavery was immoral and contrary to the foundational principle that every individual is created equal with the same rights, but that the eradication of slavery could not happen without tearing the union apart, but that it least it could be outlawed in any new states.

But note that the preamble to the Declaration of Independence begins “We hold these truths to be self-evident,’ clearly a philosophical stance that truth should be based on reason and experience. Reason and experience, therefore, become the means for attaining life, liberty and happiness for all.

Some founders of the new republic thought if was not a perfect document that gave our nation birth. It’s said that after the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked whether what he helped to create was a republic or a monarchy. He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” A republic is a form of government in which the people elect representatives to serve them. Some of the founders feared direct democracy could lead to mob rule.

Thus our republic is only one generation removed from extinction. Each generation must decide for itself whether or not to continue a representative form of government. This is why fair, free, and secure voting is so important. By choosing our representatives we are really deciding whether our republic will continue. We choose our leaders rather than having them choose us. That is a simple way to describe the heart of what makes and keeps us a republic. It’s that simple to state and that difficult for each new generation to decide.