Lawlessness Begets Lawlessness

I have been very hesitant to write this post.  I fear that what I am about to say will be twisted into supposed advocacy of violence.  So let me say right now, I pray for a peaceful, lawful defeat and casting off of the lawless tyranny, tyrannies really, that have descended on America.  And every time I read from Coverdale’s Psalm 57 during Morning Prayer – Under the shadow of thy wings shall be my refuge, until this tyranny be overpast – I am reminded so to pray.

But I fear matters will not transpire so well or so peacefully for the United States.

And so does Maetenloch at Ace of Spades.  For the past two nights, he has focused on the problem of lawless Leftists disregarding the rule of law and using raw government force to attack political opponents, and so far without consequences.

Yes, his overnight threads are . . . wide-ranging.  Focus on  “Wisconsin’s Shame” and “How Lois Lerner Evaded Charges” from two nights ago and on “Quote of the Day” and “Kurt Schlichter: Why Liberals May Regret Their New Rules” from last night.

The problem of lawless government extends far beyond it being used to attack political opponents. (That is another reason I have been hesitant to post.  It is a problem so big, it is hard to get one’s arms around it, and it is not at all easy to do so even in this humble post.) But for now, let us consider this aspect and its consequences.

And, yes, I am not naïve.  I know Obama and his ilk are not the first ones to attempt to use the power of government to suppress and attack political opponents.  But a moment in American history in which the attacks are so wide ranging, using multiple agencies, and are being conducted with such impunity – such a moment does not come to mind.

The result may be that Leftists may find their cry “No Justice. No Peace.” may be more true than they would like. As Maetenloch observed two nights ago:

We have a system of justice in this country but more and more it's clear that it no longer can provide any justice in the cases of partisan government officials using government harassment and thuggery against citizens who merely hold opposing political beliefs. . . .

So there's an assumption that if the legal system is manipulated and even blocked, then there's simply no recourse at all for those on the receiving end of this treatment and so they'll just accept it. Which is clearly what the above people [i. e. namely Milwaukee district attorney John Chisholm and Judge Barbara Kluka in Wisconsin, and Lois Lerner and US Attorney Ron Machen. - Ed.] and their allies seem to believe. Well out of inertia of trust in the system this is true up to a point - but only up to a point.

But when that trust that justice will actually be delivered is finally broken, stoic acceptance of the jiggered results of a broken system can no longer be counted upon either. Instead you will see a reversion to the older, rougher justice delivery firmware that's embedded in our DNA and it will be ugly. But not necessarily unjust.

Given that people have had their lives destroyed for merely making a bad joke on social media, wearing the wrong shirt, answering a hypothetical question about catering incorrectly, and using the wrong ordering of words in a phrase, not to mention threatened with jail for the act of committing politics, I see no reason that Chisholm, Kluka, Lerner, and Machen who have done far worse should be able to walk the streets and go through life comfortably and carefree.

Don't blame me for this - I wasn't the one who deliberately subverted and broke the system of justice that we had.

Yes, this comes a bit close to advocating vigilante justice.  And vigilante justice is not to be desired - all the more reason to demand lawful justice against the likes of John Chisholm and Lois Lerner.  For a vacuum of no lawful justice from those who have the duty to execute justice invites vigilantism . . . and worse as Kurt Schlichter warns:

Which brings us to America in 2015. It’s becoming a nation where an elite that is certain of its power and its moral rightness is waging a cultural war on a despised minority. Except it’s not actually a minority – it only seems that way because it is marginalized by the coastal elitist liberals who run the mainstream media.

Today in America, we have a liberal president refuses to recognize the majority sent to Congress as a reaction to his progressive failures, and who uses extra-Constitutional means like executive orders to stifle the voice of his opponents. We have a liberal establishment on a secular jihad against people who dare place their conscience ahead of progressive dogma. And we have two different sets of laws, one for the little people and one for liberals like Lois Lerner, Al Sharpton and Hillary Clinton, who can blatantly commit federal crimes and walk away scot free and smirking.

Today in America, a despised minority that is really no minority is the target of an establishment that considers this minority unworthy of respect, unworthy of rights, and unworthy of having a say in the direction of this country. It’s an establishment that has one law for itself, and another for its enemies. It’s an establishment that inflicts an ever-increasing series of petty humiliations on its opponents and considers this all hilarious.

That’s a recipe for disaster. You cannot expect to change the status quo for yourself and then expect those you victimize not to play by the new rules you have created. You cannot expect to be able to discard the rule of law in favor of the rule of force and have those you target not respond in kind.

And although we are already going beyond the topic of government attacks on political opponents, that goes to the heart of the problem – lawlessness begets lawlessness.  And that especially if the lawless are those in power who abuse government power to subvert justice, the rule of law, and Constitutional rights instead of furthering and protecting them.  What I've posted so far is just a taste of the rising anger among Americans.

Schlichter notes that the revolt against these and other enormities of the Left has been peaceful so far, marked mainly by the elections of 2010 and 2014. (And I find that peacefulness remarkable and commendable.)  But, unlike Bill Clinton in 1994, Obama has chosen to defy the Consent of the Governed as expressed in those elections and so have congressional Republicans.  They were elected to stop Obama.  Instead they have enabled him.  And the consequences of that enabling could be ugly as well and in many ways already are.  But that will have to wait for another post.

In any case, government that not only ignores political opponents, but also ignores the rule of law by using raw government power to attack political opponents, as DA John Chisholm and IRS hack Lois Lerner and, yes, Obama have done, is profoundly un-American and invites a response we do not associate with this country as well.

Please pray for the country.  We need it.

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MORE: Glenn Reynolds has been posting frequently in this area over at Instapundit.  For example, this post about Wisconsin.