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LIBERAL LAMENTATIONS
The DJ held his finger an inch above the button in nervous
anticipation. Then…cheers went up and the bass started thumping. Men kissed
each other. Lesbians, well, they were still scowling but inside they were
happy. The announcement outside the Supreme Court
confirmed it: Gay marriage is the law now. Despite the imminent collapse of
Western Civilization, seeing people so blissful is kind of touching. It’s not really
their fault, of course. It’s straight people that don’t think much of marriage
anymore despite the mountain of evidence for its positive benefits.
Most cheering this pyrrhic victory write off conservative
anger as mere bigotry. They always do. But most conservatives know that gay
marriage probably would’ve happened even without the courts. (Thanks,
Millenials!) No, the current frustration isn’t about gay marriage per se; it’s
about the rule of law. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the decision might be
nice but it has nothing to do with the constitution. Justice Scalia argued,
“Who do we think we are?” This argument about process seems petty and officious
to the left and the perpetually ignorant (But I repeat myself.) Their aversion to
the constitution allows them a simple doctrine: “I like this issue. I don’t
like that one. Who cares how it happens?”
Why does this matter? John Adams said, “We are a government
of laws, not men”. Terrified of a tyrannical executive, the specter of King George
III hovered over the constitutional convention. Media went ballistic over
George W. Bush’s signing statements but when Obama stated, “Elections have
consequences,” he meant his election, not the groin kicks he took in the
mid-terms. Armed with a pen and a King George-sized ego he did the following:
1.
Despite
settled law, he tried to sink the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Depository. He
was spanked
by an appellate court.
3.
Obama unilaterally made 37 illegal changes to Obamacare, one of which subsidized congress after they realized they would be forced
to use Obamacare.
4.
Obama appointed the head of the National Labor
Relations Board while the Senate was technically in session. Spankedagain.
5.
Forbes provides a good list of other constitutional violations but there are other lists far more
exhaustive.
Obama’s lawlessness and extreme partisanship also encouraged
an atmosphere where the IRS punished its foes and the EPA rejected 90% of
Freedom of Information requests from conservative groups while accepting 90%
from liberal groups. Also, though it gained little attention, some of the
Solicitor General’s arguments at SCOTUS suggested there really should be no
limit to executive authority at all.
Conservatives are obsessed with this “Rule of Law”. It seems
obvious that without it, we are Mexico. Maybe one reason the left doesn’t much
care about this issue is their view of history itself. Woven into the Oval
Office rug is a saying: “The arcof the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice”. Intellectuals
like Francis Fukuyama and Obama uber-advisor Cass Sunstein believe that history
is indeed always progressing. Sounds nice except that it’s, you know, stupid. There
are notable examples such as slavery being mostly eradicated thanks to Western
civilization which forced the changes on their unwilling colonies around the
world. But liberty and prosperity have risen and fallen throughout the ages. Greece
invented democracy and then lost it. Rome was at times a republic but succumbed
to tyranny. Its conquering plunged the
world into the Dark Ages. Even the Muslim world was once tolerant and
innovative. And now? European social democracies are close to bankruptcy, pseudo-totalitarian
Russia is ascendant, and the Middle East is even more aflame than usual. The
arc of history is more like Chutes and Ladders.
Western Europeans are a decaying and morally effete race but
American liberals still try to emulate them. Greece’s implosion should be a
case study for them. Debt played a major part, of course, but the real reason they’ll
soon be eating out of garbage cans and dying because they can’t get their insulin
is cultural. The top Greek pastimes are 1. Tax evasion. 2. Work evasion 3. Blaming
Germany. Petty corruption is endemic. Everything
from traffic tickets to building codes is negotiable so what’s astounding
is that anybody could be surprised at this self-imposed calamity.
If liberals really wish to destroy the rule of law to get
what they want, they should be careful what they wish for. Weather changes. American
history is full of religious revivals. One terrorist attack, a war, a handful
of scathing government scandals and ‘voila!’ America is conservative again. After
LBJ? Nixon. Carter? Reagan. Clinton? Bush. See the pattern? Maybe conservatives
should make a list of things that just won’t be enforced when we get power.
“Hey! Is that bicycle helmet made from an endangered Desert
Tortoise shell?”
“Why, yes it is!”
“Where can I get one?”
“Ebay”.
In a brilliant piece, Kurt Shlichter laments how liberals are willing to destroy lives
over wedding cakes and flowers. He argues that these scorched-earth cultural
battles and the incessant chipping away at the constitution have bottled up
conservative anger like never before. And human nature favors payback.
Schlichter recalled his experience during the Bosnian war. Rule
of law had become primal law. Villages were slaughtered, untold numbers of
women raped. God forbid, but if the apocalypse arrives (zombie or regular), one
week after 24 hour Chinese food goes away, 25% of urban liberals will be dead. Mormons
will do fine because their apocalyptic theology requires expertise at canning
and freeze-drying. But “the coastal elites, the ones who brought us helicopter
parenting, ‘trigger warnings’ and coffee cups with diversity slogans are
uniquely unsuited to a world where force rules instead of law”. The survivors
will be the people who always understood that the current façade of
civilization hides a human nature that can be animalistic and selfish. Liberals
who know how to compost might last longer but when THEY are finally killed and
eaten, there will only be one thing left to say: “MORMONS GOT FOOD! GET ‘EM!”
