claim the moral high ground

claim the moral high ground

To claim, purport, or make it appear that one's arguments, beliefs, ideas, etc., are morally superior to those espoused by others. The senator always tries to claim the moral high ground during a debate so as to shift public opinion in his favor.
See also: claim, ground, high, moral
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

take, claim, seize, etc. the moral ˈhigh ground

claim that your side of an argument is morally better than your opponents’ side; argue in a way that makes your side seem morally better: Don’t you try to take the moral high ground with me! You’re just as bad as I am!
See also: ground, high, moral
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • moral
  • seize
  • seize the moral high ground
  • take the moral high ground
  • take, claim, seize, etc. the moral high ground
  • go to the stake
  • (one's) (true) stripes
  • (one's) true color(s)
  • (one's) true colours
  • a value judgement
References in periodicals archive
When liberals enact government policies and laws that result in the initiation of force and the violation of individual rights, they can no longer claim the moral high ground. The initiation of force is the difference between good and evil.
The PM, who prefers to claim the moral high ground, would lose credibility if seen to be unabashedly involved in horse trading.
Neither club can claim the moral high ground on this issue."
What a dilemma that is for Catholic and other Christian colleges and universities that tend to claim the moral high ground in higher education.
Now everyone caters to silly vegan demands they must be looking for a new way to claim the moral high ground.
end it but you can claim the moral high ground and remind them of their promise.
MRS May attempts to claim the moral high ground for bypassing Parliament in her haste to join Trump and Macron in a futile gesture of bombing which can only delay the chemical weapons watchdog from travelling to the scene of the attack.
The US cannot claim the moral high ground regarding the ISIL war.
The biggest crime committed in Hearts' clash against Celtic was Brown trying to claim the moral high ground as he labelled fellow professional Jamie Walker a cheat.
This is not a great week for Blairites like John Mann, who deliberately started that unseemly brawl with Livingstone before the cameras in order to stoke a civil war and claim the moral high ground.
It will be difficult to claim the moral high ground from now on.
As a journalist who trades in such tales I am certainly making no attempt to claim the moral high ground, and the picture is finally becoming a little clearer for a few of the Falcons whose current deals are up in June.
In the end, without any practical alternatives to raising revenue, and without the ability to claim the moral high ground, the casino ballot measure amounts to no more than a statewide group trying to dictate the economic development strategies of local communities.
Set in 1955 in New York City, Julian David Stone's impressive novel follows Jonny from the writers' room of a steady network gig to a crisis of conscience when he decides to abandon his regular paycheck to claim the moral high ground against the spreading plague of McCarthyism.
ySTANBUL (CyHAN)- One could argue that those deputies occupying the seats reserved for the political opposition in Turkey's Parliament can claim the moral high ground vis-a-vis today's corruption probe: "Out of power, so no chance of wrongdoing."