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We continue our series of editorials on ten guiding words crucial to the mission of refocusing the conservative movement. We've covered reality, reason, morality, unity, responsibility, and restraint - this week we will take a look at the importance of the word law.
The Rule of Law
Greek philosopher Plato once offered powerful words of caution and hope relevant to today's America - "Where the law is subject to some other authority and not of its own, the collapse of the state is not far off; but if law is the master of the government and the government is its slave, then the situation is full of promise and men enjoy all of the blessings that gods shower on a state." Plato would recognize our country's current vulnerabilities.
Practicalities are a Poor Substitute for the Law
In the years following the attacks on the World Trade Centers, Republicans under the Bush Administration persistently found justification for abandoning the rule of law. With rare exception, they were supported by rank and file conservatives. That support had more to do with situational loyalty and hysterics than reason and true conservative thinking.
Fast forward to one result of Republican indifference to the rule of law - the election of the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate to the highest office in the land. Using the failures of the previous administration, the economy, and a landslide victory as a mandate for political agenda over the rule of law - the process has been accelerated. We can only hope that the kidnapping of our health care liberties represents the zenith of this misguided mission and that America's majority is waking to the dangers.
Rule by Law
The Rule of Law properly applied serves as a check against the abuse of power. Rule by Law, a disguised evil, simply uses the law as a tool for government to suppress those it governs. Most of the world is ruled in this fashion and the U.S. is fast joining the crowd.
It was Thomas Paine who offered, "In America, the law is king". Unfortunately, far too many of our political vanity kings see the law as an impediment to be circumvented in the pursuit of other priorities -including power and special interests. Kings come in many guises.
The founding fathers recognized the corruptibility of man and thus created a constitution that limits as surely as it empowers. All men of principle, regardless of their political persuasion, need guard against those who speak to the importance of "adapting" our governing constitution to someone's transient vision of practical considerations. More often than not, those wishing to by-pass the rule of law are simply pursuing a license to steal. There is little difference in a White House governed by an indifference to law and a crack house.
How Well and How Soon
Laws help glue a society together. For that glue to work, those laws must be developed thoughtfully and applied fairly. Words like consistent, honest, and timely are important to the rule of law. Any society wishing to secure its future must work persistently to keep its judicial system healthy.
Unfortunately, America's legal system has deteriorated dramatically in recent decades. As the number of attorneys has risen exponentially, the quality of the law has paradoxically dropped. Inefficient, expensive, and unpredictable are the words best describing today's judiciary at local, state, and national levels. There are reasons beyond self-service that criminals almost universally hold our judicial system and those who run it in poor regard.
Aristotle, a student of Plato's and another voice offering words of wisdom for today once shared, "Law is order and good law is good order." Like his mentor, Aristotle valued the rule of law - he believed that those who administered over others should in turn, be administered by the law. Plato noted that good laws fairly applied for the good of the people could actually enhance versus restrain liberty.
Enforcement Matters
Like babies, making laws is easy - funding and brining those laws to life is where the real work begins. America, today, is observing an astounding expansion of laws at the local, state, and national levels. Yet the enforcement of those laws that exist is increasingly sporadic and selective.
Laws should be refreshed, repealed, or enforced - period. Laws that exist on paper and are unreliably enforced breed contempt for the system that created those laws. That state of disrespect, in turn, feeds a social disregard capable of breaking down the culture hiding behind a weak curtain of unenforced legalities.
The rule of law offers a system of external checks and balances that can complement the more internal restraints of values, principles, standards, and conscience. Though ultimately it is the internal character of its membership that charts a society's future, the rule of law plays no small part in molding that character. Conservatives cherish that partnership and look to the wisdom of the ages to validate the absence of a reliable substitute...
Next week - Part 7 of "True Conservatives" - we'll take a look at the importance of 'Contribution'...
Dr. Carl Mumpower
www.thecandidconservative.com
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