Governing isn’t simple enough to fit on a sign

Now here is the text again, line-by-line, contrasted with what I’d put on my sign, were I a fan of that method of communicating with my neighbors. You’ll see that I’ve failed to make mine short enough to fit.

That’s the trouble with government by slogan — it implies it’s simple, but it ain’t. Each policy choice requires good data, careful analysis, and a stiff look at your own assumptions.

In this house we believe …

In this house we don’t all have to come to the same conclusion about issues. However, at least one of us has tentatively concluded, until evidence appears that causes a re-examination …

No human is illegal

Entering any country without the permission of its government, or over-staying or violating the terms of a visa, is against the law. Illegal entry into the United States should be expected to result in deportation unless, as the law states, a “well-founded fear” of persecution can be established.

Love is love

Consistent with the Constitution, laws may constrain romantic behavior. For example, state laws against public fornication, bigamy, and sexual relations with minors are legitimate reflections of America’s current moral standards. So is protection, by constitutional ruling or statute, for gay marriage and employment.

Science is real

Computer models of physical reality are not science. Science is the unbiased testing of theory with data. Models try to mimic science when experimentation is difficult, expensive, or, in the case of our linked ocean, land, and atmospheric system, impossible. “Man-made climate change” models are pre-programmed to attribute all of the last century’s roughly one degree increase in average global temperatures to otherwise harmless industrial warming gasses rather than natural fluctuations. They suffer from severe limitations such as unverifiable assumptions and a poor fit with the actual data.

When these models are used to predict future climate catastrophes because of continued emissions of warming gasses, they create scenarios that are little more plausible than science fiction. At each time-step forward, the number of variables that can have different values is immense, so after just a few time-steps the models start to vary wildly from whatever reality actually occurs.

To date the actual data do not show the increases in rates of sea level rise, droughts, floods, fires, and storms that have been predicted by these models.

Women’s rights are human rights

The Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade held that both a pregnant woman and the government have a legitimate interest in her fetus. That decision and subsequent rulings reasonably provide the woman with the “compelling,” dominant interest in the first two trimesters and the government with that interest in the final trimester. The Supreme Court has since permitted state laws and regulations that do not fundamentally infringe on the Roe v. Wade framework.

Black lives matter

That black lives matter to our various levels of government is shown by laws against ethnic discrimination and the billions of public dollars spent on the health, education, and welfare of black Americans. However, police killings of black civilians remain a particular source of controversy. Policing is necessary to our society. It’s a dangerous job that requires many split-second decisions to protect both civilians and police. Police risk their lives on behalf of the safety of the community every time they interact with the public. Each year police kill about 1,000 civilians and about 50 police are killed when attacked by civilians (another 50 die on highway and other duties). When police kill civilians, 90 percent of the time they faced a weapon, usually a gun.

Each case is a tragedy that should be fully investigated, and prosecuted if appropriate, to ensure that proper procedures are learned and followed. Studies of police killings have found no evidence that black people who confront police with a weapon are killed at a higher rate than other people. Police killings of black people are a tiny share of all killings of black people. For example, in Chicago during this decade, about 600 people were killed every year, almost all of them black men. An average of 16, or 3 percent, of those killings were by police.

Water is life

Water is indeed crucial for life, but then again so is carbon dioxide, including as a by-product of power generation. Wealth created by capitalism is also important, because it allows societies to invest in scientific discoveries, medical technology, health insurance, and an electrical grid to purify water. American life expectancy has increased from 50 to 80 years in the past century as a result. Only about a quarter of Africans have access to electricity, and life expectancy in Africa is 55.

Kindness is everything

Uh, no. Progress in society depends not just on people being kind, but on them analyzing policies, coming to their own conclusions, and then having the courage to defend them.

And that’s what my sign would say, if it would fit. Of course, it’s not just liberals who try to convince via vacuous slogans. Conservatives have their favorites too:

But we’ll get to all that next time.

Former American University professor Caleb Rossiter is the director of the American Exceptionalism Media Project. In the 1980s he was deputy director of the bipartisan congressional Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus. Formerly a fellow at the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies, Rossiter is now a fellow at the right-leaning Texas Public Policy Foundation. His most recent book, “Don’t Need A Weatherman: A Novel about Bringing the War Home,” will be published by Algora Publishing later this month.