Nate Knows Nada

Political people don’t generally like civil disobedience, unless it’s for a cause that they support.  Witness the spectacle going on in my former domicile, San Francisco. 
(And enjoy the punctuation problem that kept the restraining order from
going out.  It makes this former editor and current teacher’s
heart absolutely warm.)  Conservative religious groups are foaming
at the mouth at the act of mass civil disobedience to California’s
unjust law defining marriage as only occurring between one man and one
woman.  But just a few months ago, when Roy Moore’s Ten
Commandments monstrosity was being fought over in Alabama, civil
disobedience of the law was all the rage with this same group of people.

My point above is not profound.  People are hypocrites,
especially when it comes to questions of power or perceived
power.  But it still surprises even cynical me when hypocrisy
occurs in public and we all see it.  Same idea’s going on with all
the hullaballoo about “activist judges” — they only seem to be
“activist” when they rule against you; when they’re for you, then the
judges are just upholding the rule of law.

But the members of the groups opposing gay marriage and acts of
civil disobedience against an unjust regime, such as in San Francisco,
should remember the words of the teacher they profess to revere:
“You hypocrite!  First remove the plank of wood from your own eye,
and then you will see clearly to remove the speck of dust from your
brother’s eye.”

Still, I am never surprised by hypocrisy in American (or other)
politics, by all parties involved, whether Howard Dean types or George
W. Bush.  Politics simply cannot bring out the best in people
without also bringing out the worst in them also.