In one of my most recent entries, I coined the question "what is a country without laws?" Allow me to append that with a better one - does the GOP of today, by their actions, understand that we are dangerously close of turning the United States into a lawless country?
The Berik Debacle should be the last straw for many Democrats and America-loving patriots. The stench of this scandal lies on the jackets of Guiliani, Bush, and Bush's choice for AG, Alberto Gonzales. Anyone who isn't brainwashed should know by now that our "elected" government doesn't have one ounce of respect for the law. Everyone, from Bush to Rumsfeld, from DeLay to Santorum, the GOP of today does not care about the law. They may feel powerful and arrogant on their high horse, but they forget one thing:
The law applies to everyone, elected official or not, and unaccountable disobedience to it in broad daylight loosens the grip of justice. What makes them think that we won't feel the same way? In other words, who is to stop us from feeling as if the law no longer applies to us if it no longer applies to those who make it?
As an advocate of personal responsibility, I'm lenient towards minor indiscretions, those that only affect one person (the self), but when it comes to public law breaking and corruption, the kind that affects many people, that is when it becomes a serious issue. As always, it all comes down to when you get caught, but these days, it's as if when you get caught, all you get is a slap on the wrist rather than a strong indictment of guilt and punishment. Republicans today are engaging in some of the most blatant illegalities we have ever seen in public officials, state and federal, and no one is taking the fall.
No one has taken the fall for 9/11, Iraq, Abu Gharib, corporate corruption in government, etc., and yet they expect us to be good citizens, obey them, and simply shut up for our own good. They are treading on dangerous waters that could engulf this nation into a civil war that will have no boundaries, no south & north or east & west. For why should American citizens today follow the law when our own government officials don't?
No country can exist without laws. Iraq is a close example, as is the Sudan. All a lawless country can be is a plot of land. America is running the risk of becoming nothing more than a plot of land, full of people who have no respect for the law and do anything they damn well please.
Desperate people do desperate things, and we are living in times of sheer desperation for a lot of folks. When it comes to life and death, people will do just about anything to survive. They will rob their fellow man, hide themselves away in a shelter, even murder another human being so that they may live another day.
I see America heading down that path unless some important people grow a spine and get serious about instituting real law and order with our government officials. Look at DeLay - if he were to tell people to give to a charity for a good cause, how many do you think would tell him to piss off? It's like Bush telling the American people that we need money to support his illegal war in Iraq - do we want to give any more money to this blunder of a foreign policy?
I have heard stories of folks that have decided to no longer pay their income tax because they refuse to have their money being used to kill women and children in other countries, much less have it be taken away to be given to rich people. It's against the law to not pay your income tax, but tell that to someone who feels as if the law has no application to American life anymore.
The GOP really are geniuses, if you think about it. Their biggest concern is shrinking government to where it can be "drowned in a bathtub." Ironically, they are doing just that by making American law worthless by their actions and inactions. They declare we don't care about the Constitution, but the purpose of the Constitution and its Amendments is to expand freedoms and to protect Americans from those who trespass against and oppress us. They only want laws that benefit them and them alone, and to hell with any other law or document that says otherwise. This is big with today's Christian Right who don't follow American law but rather "Christian" law.
And like most things in life, the sword cuts both ways.
Who will protect them when poor Americans, who equally have no respect for the law, come crawling to and breaking into their homes, searching for money, food and water? Do these people feel that they will be more secure by their unaccountable actions when all is said and done? Who knows how many Timothy McVeighs we have created by this illegal war in Iraq, much less the terrorists we have spawned over there? How many angry, militaristic anti-Americans have we generated by a government who hasn't one iota of respect for the men and women they send to die for us and our freedoms? Who knows how many Americans they are shaping to act as if they have nothing left to lose except their life?
We are on a fast-track to a lawless society, and the GOP and Christian Right are so blinded by their shortsighted, pompous, self-righteous attitudes that they have no clue how close the brick wall is to smashing this vehicle we call America. Unless we can hold these men and women accountable for their wrongdoings, the law will be nothing more than an extensive novel that too many of us will find boring. If we can't even achieve that, we don't deserve to call ourselves a country.