[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
A low mordant chuckle started my day reading Paul Krugman, who bravely and forthrightly planted the stalwart principle of Law when advocating Bush administration prison terms, for we are a nation of laws.
Please. We are a nation of laws selectively enforced that ruthlessly implement racism and classism, while simultaneously protecting and shielding the elite who break the holy law with impunity. Rush Limbaugh, opiate addict, skated while tens of thousands of blacks were imprisoned for basically the same offense.
Furthermore, this "hard left" citizen has not forgotten for one nanosecond Bush vs. Gore. The Law, my my my, how adherence to that quaint naiveté delivered for the country in 2000 then, eh? What is this god damn principle of Law so freely tossed about, truly? It means nothing in America, hasn’t for quite some time, not for those with the means to escape it.
I truly wonder how lawyers align their intellects with the laughable joke of their profession every day—there are many good lawyers, just because the principle is a laughingstock doesn’t mean striving for it isn’t crucial, giving up in petulant immaturity is far worse than denial, one has to pay the mortgage somehow. All right.
Just don’t stand there and act as if some grand functioning of American justice of The Law is available to throw Bush felons in chains. Bush vs. Gore rips the country still this very second, when we so crucially needed the law sneering brutal thugs shit on it and then jammed it down our throats with George Bush and Dick Cheney, and now we can’t even decide whether to imprison them. The Law, I’m so impressed.
To take an extremely well-earned digression for a few seconds I’d like to state this to all the obnoxious assholes who so stupidly called me an Angry Liberal all these years: I told you so. Oh yes, I told you when you ripped up the law to steal an election you empirically demonstrated to Bush he could break any law he liked, why the hell not, since he got his job that way. I told you these laughingly stupid supply-side cretins were war criminals in a war that itself that was nothing but a vast crime. I told you this was an utter flaming disaster of a childish asshole President well before he ever took the oath, but oh no, Bush was the new God of American politics. Have fun in your fifty year political wasteland for all that.
Now then. Of course this is not advocating for abandoning The Law, chaos would ensue that harms many others while ignoring that little principle of doing the right thing. Arrogant immaturity is for wealthy Republicans, the little people do the right thing at the very least upon the threat of coercion, they dare not try Republican law tricks at home, prison and jail arrives very quickly, very ruthlessly for those who do.
Yes, the little people will follow The Law because they enjoy being good people, plus that little fact of imprisonment if they don’t. The Law, it binds the nation together, verily, we are a Nation of Laws. Okay.
I’ll live out my life playing this game for all the vital reasons stated above, but I doubt very much real adherence to The Law will ever occur in my lifetime, and after Bush vs. Gore my base respect for lawyers and their clownshow courthouses never will.
Extreme? Radical? Embittered? Angry? Jesus, take a look around: two heinous, stupid futile wars, felons everywhere for torture in them, a smashed economy in horrifying ruins, pride and reputation for country in utter shameful desolation. All for Georgie and Dick, all from treating the The Law like toilet paper with Bush vs. Gore.
We will all reach for the grand principle of The Law, of course, we must all try to do the right thing every time it’s presented to us, oh yes, never fear.
Just don’t piously intone a bedrock Republic principle that’s in reality an offensive fantasy, please. We are a nation of alleged laws we have desperate problems enforcing equally to a heinous, sickeningly hypocritical degree, and throwing Bush felons in prison would be a tiny start in actually living the Rule of Law in the United States. That I can live with.