N.O. Pundit

What If Something Didn't Go Wrong?

Via today's RealClearPolitics, I found Dick Morris' piece The Terri Schiavo case is rousing the moderates. To paraphrase the Merrill Lynch phrase, when Dick Morris speaks, I listen.

He particularly impressed me last year whenever he was invited on as a talking head during last year's presidential campaign as the calm, rational voice in a sea of vitriol. By being nobody's friend, he was everybody's friend.

Terri Schiavo's later life, and subsequent death, is excruciatingly sad. My heart goes out for all parties involved. Sad, yes, but tragic, I don't know. Tragedy is when a grievous wrong has occurred. Has that happened? I don't think so. At the least, it is possible that it hasn't.

The grievous wrong in this case would be that Terri was not in a permanent vegitative state and that there was a chance for recovery, partial or otherwise. There are those who wail that we'll never know. Actually, we will know know more shortly because an autopsy will be done on Terri to determine more about the nature of her affliction and whether anything more could have been done.

But my question is not: what if something did go wrong; but rather: what if something didn't go wrong? What if Terri Schiavo was in an irreversible permanent vegitative state, what if the courts ruled with compassion and strictly within the rule of law, what if Michael Schiavo, however mortal or imperfect, was conducting Terri's affairs in what he perceived as her best interests? Nothing I have read has indicated otherwise. More important, perhaps, what if real mistakes were made, borne only from the necessary imperfection of the human condition, but not from malice or arrogance?

Anyone who claims to know God's mercy is, frankly, a charlatan [update 4/1/2005: I have removed the word "charlatan", as it is needlessly inflammatory. I am just as susceptible to the passion of the moment as anyone else. I apologize. To finish the sentence more appropriately: Anyone who claims to know God's mercy is, in my opinion, incapable of such knowledge.] Rush Limbaugh does not know God's grand design for Terri, or Michael, or the Schindlers, or Judge Greer, or any of the other actors involved. Neither does Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Randall Terry, nor any of the others up in arms over what they perceive as a miscarriage of justice. I am most certainly not saying that these types aren't in fact strongly motivated by their faith or the absolute best of intentions. I am simply stating that no one can speak God's will, period. There are conscientious, faith-motivated folks on every side of this debate.

Again, I am extremely moved and saddened by what all the intimate actors are going through. But life is full of just these types of struggles. In one of the ironies for the ages, one should not pray to be spared such a situation, one should pray for it. Or perhaps more appropriately, one should pray to be strong and open to its lessons when such an event visits your family. There is no window to your own soul as the one presented to you in interacting with a loved one who is dying (yes, I speak from experience, and no, it is none of your business).

Dick Morris' position is that it takes a lot to rile the moderates, but when they are riled, watch out. Dick Morris:

One can well understand the passion of the pro-lifers on the issue of abortion. They have a fetus to protect. For them, the commitment to preserving life carries into the womb. We may not agree, but we can certainly respect and empathize with their view.

But with Schiavo, there is no fetus. There is just Terri. And when we put ourselves in her place, more than 80 percent of us think we would want to die. To be told that we must linger in a non-life because of the dictates of a governor wedded to the religious right and a Congress in the grip of ideologically driven leaders seems to the vast majority of us a level of government interference we find too intrusive to tolerate.

Next to a decision that we must live as vegetables, OSHA regulations, IRS bullying and EPA stubbornness pale by comparison. How ironic that, at the precise moment when most of us are prepared to embrace the agenda of the libertarian conservatives, we find the Republican Party, their supposed champions, running screaming in the other direction. [Emphasis mine]

He recognizes that there is an unavoidable collision of politics and extremely personal family matters which, unlike any other touchstone issue, deeply impacts the silent majority.

The government does in fact have to be ever vigilante in defending the civil liberties of those who cannot defend themelves. If we are to be a civil society, Terri Schiavo's civil rights must be protected, by the force of government if necessary. However, if we are to be civil society, we must also know as a (rule of law) society when to butt out. The Terri Schiavo case has posed a Gordian Knot of a test case.

Sean Hannity in particular has been decrying "judicial activism" in the Terri Schiavo case, but he has said not word one about "legislative activism", as if this is not possible. Glenn Reynolds on March 25 stated:

But I do think that process, and the Constitution, matter. Trampling the Constitution in an earnest desire to do good in high-profile cases has been a hallmark of a certain sort of liberalism, and it's the sort of thing that I thought conservatives eschewed. If I were in charge of making the decision, I might well put the tube back and turn Terri Schiavo over to her family. But I'm not, and the Florida courts are, and they seem to have done a conscientious job. Maybe they came to the right decision, and maybe they didn't. But respecting their role in the system, and not rushing to overturn all the rules because we don't like the outcome, seems to me to be part of being a member of civilized society rather than a mob. As I say, I thought conservatives knew this.

Earthly affairs can never be perfect. Never. That is not to say we should not aim for perfection. We should recognize that striking the target of perfection is at best an asymptotic goal, one to be aimed at but never fully achieved. In the world of politics and government, it may very well be that the best way to achieve good is to deny the do-gooders their desire to rule. For if anyone does not realize that their aims and goals will never meet, it is them.

Update: QandO has thoughts on the topic.

Posted by nopundit at March 31, 2005 09:10 PM