The Rule of Law
I was wrong. It is just easy enough to start there and fill in the blanks later. I was wrong. When I was being brought up, I was taught that the default position on every politician was to start from the assumption that everyone was a patriotic American. They wanted what was best for America and we simply disagreed with them on what that looks like. Therefore, political prosecutions were generally bad because it would devolve into a tit for tat game and nothing would ever get done.
I was wrong. Then again, I wasn’t wrong about all of it. I wasn’t wrong about how the other side would react. At the end of the day, all of this stems from a misunderstanding about what this is ultimately all about. One side is interested in the rule of law. The other side really isn’t. Oh sure, they say they are interested and no one would ever say they are against the rule of law, but that’s not what this is all about and it never has been.
Buried in all of the Trump nonsense was the death of Pat Robertson. I’m not for making even idle talk about what happens to other men’s souls. That’s not for me to decide and it never has been. However, legacies are something else entirely. The religious right swallowed the Republican party whole and turned it into something even Richard Nixon wouldn’t recognize. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote his now famous words in “The Prince”. “The ends justify the means.” Now, we see the ultimate intersection of warped faith and craven self-interest wrapped up into one simple line.
The right is entitled to lead. They are entitled to lead because they are “the party of God.” Obviously, this label is self-appointed, but they have browbeat the general public into believing it is true. So, people of God have three very distinct choices. They can acquiesce and become a member of the religious right, they can fight back and try as best they can to maintain their faith and their political truth, or they can shun God. The battlefield of the last 40+ years tells the tale. Church attendance is down. Faith professions are down. At the same time, the makeup of the church and the church itself doesn’t jive with the church many of us experienced in our youth. Pat Robertson was not the only one to bring this forward, but he definitely is one of the leading suspects.
When the ends justify the means it doesn’t matter what your guy (or gal) does. It can’t be illegal if it is done to forward our political ends. Nothing we do is illegal because we were born to lead and anything in the furtherance of this leadership is righteous. Meanwhile, anything you do is the opposite. That one phrase (the ends justify the means) ultimately separates us and explains our divide. They threaten investigations of Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton as if we care. They talk about locking her up or locking him up as if it matters to us. It comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding about the rule of law. We use the rule of law because HOW you do things is just as important if not more important than WHAT you do. They use the rule of law as a means to power. Power is the end. The end justifies the means. I was wrong. I just don’t know how many people on the other side even grasp the concept here.