“If you want to drain the swamp, you have to pull the drain plug first.“
Liberty and its essential working parts identified in the Bill of Rights stand as the furthermost outpost of freedom in recorded history, guarded only by the rule of law and virtuous citizens.
The lodestone of American exceptionalism and success is the unique Constitutional perspective of the “natural” or God-given rights of individual citizens – fenced off by the limited rights of government. Rights that are at once protected and restrained behind the rule of law.
It’s a distinctly American precept under constant and withering assault from the radical socialists, one-worlders, and outright communists who now control the Democrat Party, academia, and the corporate media-entertainment complex. Those assaults are made possible with the distressingly careless indifference of the Republican establishment and their all-powerful donor class.
The perfect storm of both the calculated and organized attacks from the radical left, and the passive disregard for the critical function of its intentional design by the center-right, bear witness to how successful the war against the rule of law has been in the last half-century, regrettably under both Democratic and Republican presidents.
It will take a herculean – supernatural – effort to turn America back in the direction of liberty with the required reformation of virtue – guarded by the rule of law.
Part of the war on the rule of law has been the natural outgrowth of the vast un-elected Administrative State – the permanent and now corrupt government – impervious to the demands of accountability or legal consequences. Virtually unlimited funding ensures the permanent government relentlessly expands, while its bureaucratic anonymity secures its intensifying power over every nook and cranny of the national life. Every failed impact of its actions is unaccountable to the voter. It grows because that’s what it does – as mindless and unempathetic to its surroundings as an earthworm.
The other forces trying to destroy the rule of law are intentional – the broadly arrayed foot soldiers of the radical left masquerading as progressives. With traditional liberalism now in full rigor mortis, the core of the Democratic Party has migrated from center-left towards the hard, radical, violent, and revolutionary left. With a lineage going back to Antonio Gramsci and Saul Alinksy in the last century, they have diligently infiltrated the nation’s institutions.
They now “own” the vast media and entertainment industry, with unchallenged, iron-fisted control of education from preschool to the universities. They have made significant inroads into the judicial system and the Administrative State – having long ago decapitated the mainline religious institutions and seminaries that in previous times counseled virtue.
With too few exceptions, the Republicans have chosen accommodation to resistance. They believe – or so it seems – that mimicking the sinking culture will give them a seat at the table of national power. After all, it’s messy and contentious work being the voice of traditional mores and individual freedom with its dynamic and vibrant energy fueled by the nation’s constitutional heritage – the very things that made it the most prosperous and free nation in history.
As many other writers have detailed extensively, the attacks on the rule of law follow the Supreme Court’s aggressive efforts over the decades to redefine the Constitution – to remake the nation outside the legislative process. They have unleashed the Judicial Branch for the task using the Commerce Clause in Article One and the expansive federal intrusion using interpretations of the First, Tenth, and Fourteen Amendments, among others.
For years, there has been a consistent and increasingly low opinion of Constitutional restraint and the rule of law. And the last decade was defined more by what was done outside the boundaries of the rule of law than inside.
The Supreme Court, for its part, has made staggering, monumental decisions in the last decade that simply can’t be found within its powers. Such as abruptly overturning 5,000 years of recorded history in one decision and removing the question of marriage from individual states. Or Obamacare, where the Court simply inserted language into a law passed by Congress where it did not exist in the legislation to affirm its constitutionality. Or negatively, to not hear the Pennsylvania 2020 election case, where the State court overrode the legislature’s constitutional power to set election law.
Congress has also turned the rule of law on its head by consistently rejecting its prescribed processes in budgeting and treaty-making. It now routinely passes omnibus budgets without committee oversight and out of sight of the public. Agreements and accords now replace treaties, escaping the scrutiny of the people. Habitually Congress passes legislation that the lobbyists and organizations affected have largely written – while benefiting from their donations and future employment.
The Executive Branch has incorporated this lawlessness into the presidency, consistently manipulating or simply ignoring decisions by Congress and the Courts. Nowhere has this been more brazen and in-your-face than with the Obama and Biden regimes. With Republican capitulation, the fabric of the public’s trust has been torn to shreds. The collapse of the rule of law is a genuine threat to civil order and is dangerously out of control.
The scandal-ridden institutions of the Federal government and the near-daily revelations of its corruption further document that the collapse of the rule of law, accountability, and responsibility is not isolated but systemic.
As Americans watch their suspicions confirmed by the public exposure of the breathtaking corruption and politicization of the most critical government functions – from Congress, the Department of Justice, Defense, State, and the nation’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies – is it any wonder that the larger society and culture has become increasingly hardened and cynical and that they begin to employ the same disregard for the rule of law and reject personal responsibility?
Our Founders understood that a Republican form of government rested on the foundation of personal virtue and individual character that its citizens would transport into both the society and the elected government.
Perhaps that was always an outcome more wished for than realized.
But having ripped the Judeo-Christian fabric off the face of public life and rejecting its precepts found in the Moral Law from which all law springs, we now cannot explain, much less demand, virtue from our government. We may seethe at the rule of law, meaning one thing for a few and another thing for most, but we citizens have brought it on ourselves.
As with all of our problems, we are confronted with issues that Washington cannot fix without intense citizen supervision. They are issues that are rooted in the fact that we the people have not demanded honesty and truth from our leaders – and we have refused to remove those who do neither.
If you want to drain the swamp, you have to pull the drain plug first.
