I look at American History through a particular prism, one that sees many of the controversies of our culture largely as a clash between the values of Puritans and Ulsterites.  I'm generalizing when I talk about history this way and, of course, there are plenty of exceptions to consider as well.  I bear in mind that Quaker tolerance and Virginia Cavalier plantation values were important long after the Revolutionary War.  Values brought to America by Catholics, African-Americans and Jews have greatly affected our political views over the last century, too, but I contend that the Puritan-Ulster clash still dominates.

 

When we use the term "Puritans", we tend to think of intolerant, devoutly religious people who want society to reflect their values and we often assume that today's Fundamentalists trace their history to the Puritans.  That's a mistake.  The Puritans' most important legacies are Harvard and Yale and they speak to us today through the academic elite, Protestant mainline churches and, to a lesser degree, the media.  I'd argue that Political Correctness is a Puritan value, for instance, fully in line with the Unitarian Church's basic beliefs.  Fundamentalists are Ulsterites and I'll prove that more fully some time when I feel like it.

 

The Puritan worldview is that we know the difference between right and wrong and that our right values are the best thing for the whole world.  But, it's better to persuade the rest of the world that these values are right through Hollywood, missionary work, scientific analysis, being a good role model, etc.  And if other nations refuse to see the wisdom of our right values, well...  they're just being stupid and we should hold those nations up to ridicule.  In this worldview, building alliances with nations who share our right values is the way to go as we embark on ruling the world through subtle means.

 

The Ulsterite view is "we are right and they are wrong".  There will always be an enemy that we have to defeat, so we should arm ourselves to the teeth and unleash our full fury on anyone who defies us.  God is on our side, so any flinching in doing God's work is simply helping satan.  Sure, values are important, but they shouldn't restrain us.  People on our side are doing good; those who oppose us are doing evil.  Allies can be very useful, but the Ulsterites have been abused by past allies repeatedly, so we shouldn't rely on any particular set of friends very much.

 

I sympathize with both.  As lovely as it is to hold onto the best possible set of values, that doesn't mean much if you don't have the might to get people's attention when they refuse to see the inherent rightness of our system.  Simply shaking your fingers at the Nazis wouldn't have kept them out of France, for instance.  On the other hand, our power in the world has been greatly helped by missionaries from both our churches & Hollywood and our academies have kept many foreign leaders close.  If you depend just on might, you're not going to have dependable allies for very long.  Winning hearts & minds depends on showing people both carrots & sticks.  To keep the moderates of the rest of the world on our side, we should prove that we can  be trusted as an honest broker.

 

What does this have to do the Hamdan decision?  It's a classic case of the Puritan importance of applying our values to all peoples and the Ulsterite insistence on dividing the world into us and them.  By a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has decided that even "they" deserve some rights and protections, that our values trump their degree of "enemyhood".  (The opinion of the court was written by the only member who served in armed forces, John Paul Stevens, and it should be rememberd that seven of the nine members of this Supreme Court were appointed by Republican presidents.)

 

 

 

 

And the Supreme Court decision gives the Administration plenty of room to deal with detainees effectively.  Consider this outline of the military's options: