Patriotism and the Rule of Law

In America we have a Rule of law: no person is above the law and no one can be punished except for breach of the law. Or as John Adams put it: we are “a government of laws and not of men.” From the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address to the rights and obligations in the Constitution and the government it set up, we present ourselves as a people joined together by the law.

The true patriot, in his or her love for country, should cherish the rule of law. Adherence to the rule of law makes us American. Now though our society is in danger because the rule of law is breaking down.

The Congress, the President and the Supreme Court are all guilty of violating our most basic laws. And everyone, not just the politicians, is to blame. It is not a question of Republicans and Democrats or the right and the left. We have all watched this breakdown going on for some time and it is getting progressively worse. Law now seems to be based on politics and ideology rather than common sense and legal principle.

The deliberate violation of the law covers the full range of governmental responsibilities: economic, political and military. As an example, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is a blatantly unconstitutional delegation of the congressional responsibility “To Coin money [and] regulate the value thereof.” It may be politically convenient for a Congressman to hide in a crowd of 435and vote with the majority but his mother surely told him why you don't just go with the crowd.

To take a more recent case, there is the failure to prosecute the blatant fraud that brought on the financial crisis or to take any meaningful action to prevent a recurrence. Too many in the Obama administration were bankers and are still complicit.

No president since Harry Truman has bothered to declare war in what were in any commonsense definition very real wars. All the presidents chose to declare a state of emergency but only because it gave them additional power. Maybe, in a time of emergency, be it economic or military, there is an argument for something akin to “martial law” to preserve the country. But even such times and such action are certainly going to be abused and in the end weaken the political system.

The WWI emergency lasted into the 1920s and “legalized” the infamous Palmer raids, the establishment of detention camps on Long Island and the deportation of American citizens without any hearing. The 1950s Korean War emergency was in force until 1978, well past the end of the Vietnam War. The War on Global Terrorism emergency declared in 2001 by President Bush has been continually extended by Presidents Bush and Obama.

The USA Patriot Act not only authorized numerous unconstitutional invasions of privacy, it also created a context that led to what is now call the “security state.” NSA, the CIA and agencies we have deliberately never heard of now have Presidentially created rights to invade virtually anybody, anywhere, at anytime, domestic or foreign. National Security Letters are like subpoenas but they are secret and you are not allowed to discuss the letter or its contents with anyone else. Such demands sound like something Thomas Jefferson would have cited as a reason for the Declaration of Independence!

The atrocities committed in the name of the Global War on Terror cry out for prosecution. Yet, the Obama administration has instructed the Justice Department that they are not to prosecute any war crimes of the Bush Administration. Presidents Bush and Obama have both condoned waterboarding, the same crime for which we have prosecuted and hanged our enemies. We have made a mockery of our signature on the Geneva Conventions.

Much of this is cloaked in a mantle of national security secrecy. Virtually every time the courts have pierced this curtain, they have discovered that national security was not involved.

The US Supreme Court, all nine of them, made a political decision in regard to the 2000 election.They have all sworn, in obvious perjury, in their confirmation hearings that they would stand on precedent and be some kind of impartial judge.

The President refuses to enforce the law. The Congress refuses to legislate. The Supreme Court is an activist legislator. The rule of law, our most prized possession, is breaking down.

If you would be a patriot this Independence Day, stop waving the flag and object to illegal wars, to financial fraud and to the absurd personification of corporations.