Everybody’s talking about it. I wonder how many really know what it means? Its meaning is difficult – and a little obscure.
In the first place it’s not a rule, but a state of being. Of a society. But, moreover, it is the achievement of an acceptably stable and successful state of existence where the law is trusted and consulted. Where people “have faith” in law. Where a substantial majority believe in the virtues of living in a law-abiding society, and the responsibilities entailed.
“The Rule of Law” is an achievement. Of a People.
The Rule of law replaces a void, and ideally fills it. The Rule of Law is the foundation of Western Civilization, and of all civilization. It is our ultimate source of strength and security. We “live within” the Rule of Law. It is like a warm blanket. This mean old world would be mighty cold without it.
You can switch the Rule of Law on and off like a light switch! When the Attorney General and the Justice Department, and the police refuse to enforce law, or choose to enforce it selectively, and arbitrarily, the Rule of Law disappears altogether. It is an indicator of a stable state, like a warning light in a 737. We are no longer in a stable state.
No void can exist for long, right? Something fills it. The enemy wants to replace law with arbitration, and doing so is fundamental to their overall plan. Justice strives to be “fair,” and “correct.” Mafia-style arbitration considers, or regards, neither. It is arbitrary, so it cannot be fair – or correct. It exists for the benefit of the “Bosses.”
At present, the Rule of Law does not exist. We don’t believe in the law’s ability to provide for our needs: peace and stability. Arbitration is already the rule of the day, with the “strongest man in the room” making every decision and determination. In so many practices, our government already mimics the Mafia. Time and time again, starting with Paul Ryan’s reign of terror, we have seen the, “strongest man in the room,” principle in practice. Democracy is the injured party . And Democracy has been repudiated every time someone pounds a gavel and negates a whole branch of government, and the votes of millions.
The Rule of Law, according to Webster, makes possible: “jurisprudence:” a system of law that can be trusted.
We only lack trust in ourselves; that is all we need. We have the power!
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/01/how-democracy-ends-not-with-a-bang-but-with-a-whimper_partner/
A basic tenet to the rule of law is that NO MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW. Or NO PERSON. However, laws have no power if those who carryout the laws are corrupt, and there are no checks and balances to hold them accountable. That is where we are today.
Men have always and I suspect will always try to circumvent laws for their personal and/or group benefit. Certain people in our society have always been above the law, not by statute but by practice. If the stewards of the law look the other way when someone violates the law, the law is of no consequence to the beneficiary of looking the other way, or to those who looked the other way.
Trump has clearly violated MANY laws. He has not only violated norms and principles, but actual statutes. However, those in charge of our government have placed the office of the presidency above the law by virtue of adhering to the 1973 Office of Legal Counsel OPINION (not a law, but an OPINIOIN) that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Further, a CORRUPT republican controlled Senate is complicit in the commission of crimes by trump, because they have looked the other way. Actually, not only have republicans in the Senate looked the other way, but so have republicans in the House as well as the chief justice of The Supreme Court. These people acknowledge that trump has violated laws, but it is okay because he is THEIR guy and they have the constitutional power to look the other way in the application of their power to impeach and remove a president from office, WHEN IT IS THEIR GUY.
Chief Justice Roberts could have intervened in the impeachment trial to carry out his RESPONSIBILITY to preside over the trail and to not ALLOW, but to actually REQUIRE witnesses and evidence. That doesn’t mean that trump would have been removed from office, because Senate republicans would have still voted to acquit him. However, the PEOPLE would have seen and heard evidence of the commission of crimes on the part of trump and his merry band of idiots.
Although republicans like to cite the original intent of the framers of the Constitution when interpreting it, they ALWAYS attempt to distort the original intent when it does not serve their agenda.
From Federalist 78:
Good points. When the 1973 opinion was written, then, I believe that the act of writing it was a deliberate departure from the rule of law, because it presumed an authority that can’t exist, which leaves usunsafe, unsure. Actually, it wasn’t even carefully reasoned or presented, or at all convincing.The main thing it really said was that the Prez might be distracted. Nor did it mention any of the tremendously important constitutional issues impacted. To use this phishing expedition as substitute for advised, legislated, judicially validated law is pathetic. I keep coming back to the same question: How do they get away with this shit? I say phishing because I don’t think they knew what impact it might eventually have; and they were lucky, it did finally become something truly malevolent.
You make some valid points, Steppenwolf. We certainly hear the phrase bantered about more so with the current resident in the White House.
It would be interesting to test your question asking if they know what democratic republic governance means?
Far too many think democracy and the rule of law are natural aspects of governance, they’re not. They are the desired outcomes one hopefully would want once freed from the yoke of a dynastic rule that believed a supreme being ordained kings and Queen.
The fact a portion of the population seems happy with the Mafia-like style of the FTOL (fat tub of lard) in the White House is troubling. Just as it was when all the Republicans stood clapped and chanted “four more years.”
You made me chuckle. I think that Trump is going down. We need a break from all this madness.
I agree we do indeed need a break for the madness. The longer Trump* remains in office, things will continue to deteriorate. He is the antithesis to democracy and the rule of law.