4/22/2014 - John Hawkins Townhall.com
When you allow unlawful acts to go unpunished, you're moving
toward a government of men rather than a government of law; you're moving
toward anarchy. And that's exactly what we're doing. -- John Wayne
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others. -- George Orwell
Tell me why any American should respect
the law?
Because it's moral? Not necessarily.
Slavery was once the law of the land. Abortion is the law of the land today.
Even in a nation like America, it's not unusual for laws to be unfair, unjust,
and even immoral.
Is it because laws represent the will
of the people? Not anymore. Today, the "law" is often summarily
created from murky statutes by unelected bureaucrats who face no consequences
for destroying people's lives.
Well, is the law at least equally
applied? Absolutely not. Your political affiliation and how well connected you
are to the regime in charge can have a direct bearing on whether you're
prosecuted for breaking the law and how serious the penalty will be.
So, what's left?
Respect for the law? Why should anyone
respect arbitrary, immoral laws that aren't equally applied and don't reflect
the will of the people? Under Barack Obama, the "law" in this country
has become nothing more than whatever you can get away with and we're likely to
feel the consequences of that for decades to come.
1) Obamacare is whatever Barack Obama says it is: Barack Obama has no more
legal right to change Obamacare all by his lonesome than Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin,
or for that matter, Justin Bieber does. He simply doesn't have the legal
authority to delay the employer mandate, delay taxes that are written into law,
or give subsidies through federal exchanges to places where no state exchange
was set up. Yet, Obama has delayed or changed the meaning of the law 19 times
as if he were Kim Jong- un, as opposed to the President of a republic.
2) There are different laws for Tea Parties and the Occupy
Movement: In
city after city, the Occupy Movement was allowed to protest without expensive
permits, participants were allowed to illegally camp and in some places they
were allowed to break the law with impunity, which is why it's so staggering
that there were still almost 8,000 arrests by the time all the dirty hippies
abandoned their tents and rape-free zones to go home and take showers.
Meanwhile, Tea Party groups across the country weren't given any similar breaks.
Tea
party activists...accused officials in at least four cities of giving
preferential treatment to anti-Wall Street protesters, and one group in
Richmond is asking the city to repay $8,000 spent for permits and other needs.
...The Richmond Tea Party said Mayor Dwight C. Jones' administration sought
permit fees, portable toilets and other demands for their events, but has given
Occupy Richmond a free pass. The occupation has grown to a tent city, with a
makeshift library, a volleyball net and a row of portable toilets. Jones has
said that because he is a product of the civil rights movement he has allowed
the Occupy protesters to remain since Oct. 17. "He's sympathizing with
them," said Colleen Owens, a spokeswoman for the Richmond Tea Party.
"We would never, as a tea party, have gotten away with not complying with
the law." Tea party organizers had to buy liability insurance, hire police
and emergency personnel and even keep a defibrillator on site, Owens said.
When groups all across the country are
charged thousands of dollars for permits and liability insurance solely because
of their political beliefs while other groups are given a free pass, there is
no equality under the law.
3) Illegal immigration becomes legal: Admittedly, George W. Bush did a mediocre job of
securing the border and enforcing immigration law. However, as a practical
matter, illegal immigration isn't "illegal" anymore. Obama has
illegally passed his own version of the DREAM Act, illegally handed out work
permits to people who are breaking the law, and for all intents and purposes,
has stopped detaining illegal immigrants who haven't been charged with other
crimes. According toSenator Jeff Sessions , "at
least 99.92% of illegal immigrants and visa overstays without known crimes on
their records did not face removal."
This is despite the fact that being here
illegally is a crime and the people who broke that law did so knowing that the
penalty was deportation. Tens of millions of immigrants have been welcomed to
this country because as EVERYONE is well aware, we already have a "path to
citizenship" for non- Americans and it's called following the law.
4) The IRS illegally targeted Tea Partiers: If the IRS ever comes after you, try refusing to hand over
documentation for years and pleading the 5th Amendment and see what happens to
you. If you're lucky, maybe you'll end up in the same minimum security prison
that Wesley Snipes went to after some advisors convinced him he didn't have to
pay taxes. Yet, after the IRS targeted Tea Partiers because they were
conservative, tried to refer them for prosecution to the DOJ, and illegally
released some of their information to outside parties, the IRS officials have
been refusing to cooperate with the investigation. If the IRS wasn’t guiltier
than Wesley Snipes, it would be cooperating just like the rest of us are forced
to do when we face an audit.
5) Eric Holder encouraged state attorney generals to refuse
to defend traditional marriage in court: In other words,
if your state passes a ban on gay marriage,
Holder wants state attorney generals to undercut the will of the people in
order to further his political agenda. So according to Eric Holder, whether the
people of a state get to have a representative in court depends on whether or
not liberal attorney generals agree with their opinion or not. As John Suthers, the attorney general of Colorado,
said:
I have been attorney general of
Colorado for nine years, during which time the state has enacted laws that span
the philosophical and political spectrum. I personally oppose a number of
Colorado’s laws as a matter of public policy, and a few are contrary to my
religious beliefs. But as my state’s attorney general, I have defended them all
— and will continue to.
....Depending
on one’s view of the laws in question, such a “litigation veto” may, in the
short term, be a terrific thing; an unpopular law is defanged and the attorney
general can take credit — indeed, he can be the hero to his political base and
keep his political ambitions intact. But in the longer term, this practice
corrodes our system of checks and balances, public belief in the power of
democracy and ultimately the moral and legal authority on which attorneys
general must depend.
....I
fear that refusing to defend unpopular or politically distasteful laws will
ultimately weaken the legal and moral authority that attorneys general have
earned and depend on. We will become viewed as simply one more player in a
political system rather than as legal authorities in a legal system. The
courts, the governments we represent and, most important, the people we serve
will treat our pronouncements and arguments with skepticism and cynicism.
When the "law" becomes little
more than politics by other means, it deserves to be treated with the same rich
contempt that we hold for politicians in this country. That has already started
to happen, it's not good for the country, and much to the chagrin of the
liberals who love this lawlessness as long as they're in charge, it's not going
to end with Obama.
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