The Importance of Principles in Moral Practice

We want our politicians to be principled, but I would much rather that they were sensitive to the distinction between right and wrong. That's really unusual because people talk about being principled, that's just a synonym for being a moral person. But why would anybody believe you? Why would anybody think that morality isn't a matter of principles? The church used to propound or educate people in the morality it preached by teaching them principles. Now, there was a reason to do that. People can understand them. They can be operated. A mature moral judgment consists simply in the application of these things. It's a casual strip, but that's a different story.