Posted on 02/17/2004 10:35:30 AM PST by 45Auto
There is a new political development in America that should frighten every law abiding citizen in this country. That is the growing disregard for people who follow the law and play by the rules, and the rewarding of those who do not.
Where I live in California we have two concurrent stories going on that demonstrate clearly what is at issue. The first one involves the Mayor of San Francisco who, though sworn to uphold the laws and the Constitution of California in his just taken oath of office, now allows and instructs city government to break those laws.
Under California’s penal code, he might very well be committing a felony. Mayor Newsome has decided that he doesn’t like California’s law that says marriage is only between one man and one woman and so he orders marriage licenses to be issued to hundreds of gay couples waiting in line at city hall.
The public and the law be damned, the Mayor will do what he wants. Meantime, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger has a “no comment” for the media when asked about it, and the State’s Attorney General musters a statement that no one has asked him to issue a legal opinion. Are they serious?
Imagine for a moment if some local public official starting giving out gun licenses en masse because he did not like California’s oppressive anti-gun laws? The entire weight of the media elite and the state would be down upon his head. The irony is there is in fact a right to bear arms as stated in the now ignored second amendment to the Unites States Constitution. There is no right to get married.
The second example is the newest move in California only weeks after a similar law was repealed due to huge public opposition to allow those people in this country illegally to obtain California drivers licenses. The Governor now says he is close to a deal with the state’s liberal Democrats that run the legislature to bring back the idea with a few new safeguards like background checks.
Yes, background checks for people who are already living outside the law and who as illegals are notorious for having more false documents than Saddam Hussein’s weapons manufacturers. Those who have chosen to ignore and outright violate the nation’s laws on how one enters into this country would be rewarded with the most important piece of state documentation, the drivers license. As we all know, this photo identification in a country that does not have a national ID card is used even to enter the country when you come from places like Mexico or Canada, but is also used as ID to board commercial aircraft.
So here we are living in a country that stands for the rule of law and not the rule of a single individual or group of individuals, and those who choose to break the law are not only allowed to keep on doing so but in the case of the drivers license controversy, they are given a reward for thumbing their noses at the rest of us.
What will happen to our society when people begin to ask what law they can break that they don’t like? What will happen to our society when it finally becomes clear to law abiding citizens that those who do not obey the laws are not only not worse off than they, but in some ways are better off?
Just think, in the nation’s most populous state today, you can get an illegal marriage license and soon be illegal and get a drivers license. Not only will public officials not stop you, but they will even help you to break the rules. Even the tough guy Governor will not be able to muster a comment when he used to talk for living.
America has never been on such a morally ambiguous path, but no intelligent person can really believe all of this can make our country better, safer, or stronger as a nation. And we embark on this road at our own peril.
Oh, right. Those might not be The Ten Commandments after all! Maybe they're just Moses' list of coupons from the Kroger flyer!
Oh, well, I guess we'll never know for sure...
That's because most of the traffic laws have little to do with public safety, and everything to do with raising revenue for the state.
Let's not split hairs, shall we? After all, there's also a SC decision that says that a law that's wrong is null and void as of its inception. Was slavery "right" simply because it was "legal" for a time?
We all know what's going on, and it's not productive to play the other side's game by splitting legal hairs. The latest, in case you haven't heard, is that the judge threw out the petition, because -- are you sitting down? -- ONE colon was misplaced. No, he didn't scratch it out and pencil in a correction, or have the petitioner correct it. He tabled it and tossed 'em out of court.
The fix is in. There's an agenda at play, and it will not let silly little things like "right and wrong" or "the rule of law" get in its way. Like the Saudi "Religious Police" who refused to allow those poor schoolgirls to save their lives -- and kept them trapped in that burning building, because they weren't wearing the correct headscarves, these scoundrels are likewise doing a picture-perfect job of straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel.
Well, since you asked, here it is: Batten the hatches. Tighten your seatbelt. Bumpy ride ahead. The country is undergoing... a collapse.
Like Germany in '39, or Rome before The Fall, many people are in shock, shaking their heads in disbelief, telling themselves that "it can't happen here."
Well, I'm telling you that it can.
I'm telling you that it is.
I would say that there is no way that you could come up with a system where court orders could be ignored without the entire system dissolving into anarchy.
Be careful. You are treading perilously close to, "I was only following orders."
Seriously.
They'd like nothing better than for someone to attempt something like that.
If they're going to start a civil war, it stands to reason that their best tactical move would be to provoke the other side into firing the first shot.
Don't let 'em use you like that.
As one of the founders pointed out, laws are not written for the decent people. If everyone was decent, we wouldn't need laws. We have laws because we have criminals, basically. Laws are simply a way of putting down on paper the sort of behavior that a civilized society cannot endure.
That, at least, is what the founders intended.
Now, when the laws veer from that standard, and those who decide the law and enforce the law become corrupt, chaos ensues.
The Right to keep and bear arms is now considered a "priviledge" in the overwhelming majority of the United States.
The Right to Free speech is no longer recognized by the federal gov't, since CFR was enacted. And the Right to Free speech is non-existent in corporate America, who has been empowered by the same gov't.
The Right to travel is now a "priviledge" thanks to what passes as "airport security".
The gov't does not recognize a Right to a speedy jury trial.
The gov't does not recongnize your Right to a fair trial with a jury of your peers that judges not only the facts, but also the law.
The gov't routinely imposes cruel and unusual punishments for victimless crimes.
You're "allowed" to own property, but only so long as you pay an annual tax on it. And only so long as some wealthy environmentalist or meddling bureaucrat doesn't want it.
The Right to privacy and the Right to be left alone are now non-existent in our new "information/surveillance" society.
And I could go on and on and on....
Everything that this country was founded upon is being systematically destroyed, while those things that are destructive to a culture and nation are being built up.
I wouldn't be surprised if they simply refuse to accept the case.
Because of this complexity, everyone is now essentially a "criminal".
So instead of enforcing laws, the government simply decides who to go after, and they use this web of edicts to get them.
The primary result of this is that the "troublemakers" can be easily rounded up and dealt with.
A secondary result, is that many people are afraid to speak out against the system, because they don't want it to come down on them.
Bingo. It's not like this is an emergency situation; this is not a crisis that demands disobedience to the law (i.e., some out of control legislature passes a law that demands that all left-handed people be arrested, and if convicted, shot the next dawn.)
Common sense dictates that even if they truly believe that the law is wrong, they should adhere to due process, rather than act on their own.
But personally, I don't think it's even a question of them "believing that the law is wrong" -- or right. They simply see an opportunity to grasp power, unopposed, and they're doing it. This is maoism, not a republic.
And did the streets run red with blood? Were there shootouts at every fender-bender?
I didn't think so.
Remarkable parallels to what's happening in this situation, IMO.
But then come the "external" adversaries, who'll see easy pickins'. We're following the Rome model. Fall, then get picked to pieces. That's why I suggest people watch "The Postman."
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