CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION--We put criminals in charge and then are bewildered why the criminals are robbing us blind.
If the saying, “God helps those who help themselves” has any merit, then God stopped helping us years ago. There comes a time for any entity, even one with supreme patience, to throw up his (does God have hands?) in exasperation.
Deuteronomy’s Choose Life passage ( 30:15-20) may be the best advice. “ . . walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, . . .” Leaving aside the religiosity of the intervening millennia, Deut 30:15-20 is a core portion of “Political Philosophy for Dummies.” It should be read in conjunction with Psalm 146:3-7, “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.” (Yes, I follow the time honored tradition of quoting the sections I like, while ignoring the rest.)
Whether one is religious or irreligious, the Bible (The Tanack) does house thousands of years of history and its central concern is a just society. The rule of law and not the whims of the rich and powerful has been the primary message. One chooses life by choosing law.
People Who Habitually Violate the Law are Criminals
One cannot put their faith in princes without elevating criminals. Power tends to corrupt and by setting aside the rule of law in favor of letting the rich and powerful do what they wish, one has created a society which is run by the corrupt for their own benefit. For decades, the 1% have been systematically transferring America’s wealth to themselves from everyone else. The problem is not a new one. The first urban area in Genesis is Sodom and Gomorrah, which allowed itself to be controlled by four corrupt judges (not all that different from Los Angeles). Once again, it’s the basic political philosophy lesson – when a society allows the corrupt to run society, they destroy the society.
Only Somnolent Twits Are ruled by A Mad Tweeter
Trump-A-Doodle did not make us a nation nitwits; he merely exemplifies have low we have fallen. I doubt there can be a more apt illustration of how we as a people have abdicated our duty to be a nation run by law than to listen to a mentally ill person who tweets each morning, noon and night. We let narcissistic Histrionic Trumpy always be the center of attention. His neurology requires that he respond to everything. He cannot help himself. A nation which honors the rule of law does not allow its chief executive to respond to piddling news stories on Fox and Friends.
We the People Are at Fault
Not only could we boo each time Trumpy demeans the Presidency with his crass behavior, but we could stop and think. Trump gets away with becoming Il Duce, because virtually every where Americans support the rule of princes. We have trashed our national heritage as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The Declaration sets forth the political theory on which the nation is based, i.e. all individuals have certain inalienable rights, and the Constitution is the supreme law of the land whose purpose is to secure the blessings of inalienable rights. George Washington refused a third term for this very reason. His lesson was that Americans were look to the law for governance and not to the power of men.
Americans Reject the Rule of Law
Most cultures are ethnocentric. Los Angeles radio station 97.9 (my favorite) has decided to call itself La Raza (rather than "La Equis"). Fundamental Christians believe that they alone are saved and everyone else is damned. Shall I need mention Saudi Arabia and other theocratic thuggeries? Our Founding Fathers knew that elevating one religious or ethnic group above others created a class of princes. They even abolished peerage. Since America still had slavery in 1776-1781, both the Declaration and the Constitution with its Bill of Rights had no room for any type of Group Rights. The First Amendment expressly excluded religion from government since it had been the most horrible and deadly form of Group Rights in Europe.
Liberty has Become of the Home of Racism
By now most people know that anyone who calls for “Freedom” is probably a far right conservative and he is not seeking truth and justice. He wants an unfettered right to own as many guns as he desire in order to kill minorities and gun down the government agents when they come to pry his gun from his cold dead hands. In name of liberty, they often violently oppose women’s inalienable right to make choices about their own bodies, preferring that government make those decisions. Yes, the same horrid government for whom they need to have AK-47's is to be trusted to decide whether a woman may receive birth control advice.
Worse Yet, Is the Democrat Party’s Rejection of the Rule of Law
Let’s not be naive. The Group Rights - Identity Politics, on which the Democrats base their entire party, is a rejection of both the Declaration and of the US Constitution. Power corrupts, and if nothing else, Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts are power mad. While the GOP is somewhat ashamed at being the sanctuary for White Supremacy, the Dems are pleased as punch with themselves for being the standards bearer for the new racism.
Between now and 2030, 40% of new voters will be Hispanic. The Dems’ Identity Politics reaches out to them by promising a bag of goodies based on their being Hispanics and not the traditional American Dream, provided they vote Dem. Similarly, Pelosi has looked to a new group of people to vote Dem – anti-Semites. She intentionally made freshman Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib high profile figures in the Dem Party.
Los Angeles Shows What Happens Went a Society Rejects the Rule of Law
Los Angeles city council is far worse than Congress. LA City Council is a criminal enterprise which operates openly in violation of the criminal law, Penal Code, § 86 which outlaws vote trading in city councils. Thanks to an equally corrupt and degenerate judiciary, LA city council’s habitual reliance on criminality has been blessed by Judge Richard Fruin as “non-justiciable,” e.g. above the law. Judge Fruin accepted as true the allegations that the LA city council’s voting is criminal, but says that does not matter since it may do whatever it wants. That is why every high rise or mixed use project which starts with the destruction of rent controlled house receives unanimous approval. Garcetti is proud of the fact of the unanimity under his reign as city council president.
Power Corrupts; Corrupt Destroys
Nationally, wealth is being funneled to the 1% while everyone else gets poorer. No one really cares how may laws Trump breaks – except Dems for whom it is political hay to complain. The Dems never chastise themselves and their Identity Politics which is on par with the crimogenic LA city council.
Los Angeles Is the Dead Canary in the Coal Mine
No one wants to heed over 4,000 years of history – corruption destroys. It was true for Sodom and Gomorrah and Nazi Germany and it coming true for Los Angeles. We see the homeless crisis, but are too cowardly to admit its cause, i.e. a crimogenic city hall which has intentionally destroyed the homes of LA most poor while engaging in criminal spot zoning to inflate housing costs far above any rational valuation.
How do the good people of Los Angeles respond to the homeless crisis? “Hide the Homeless, Hide the Homeless!” The reality is that the homeowners in Sherman Oaks do not care how many toddlers are sleeping on the pavement as long as they do it out of sight. Garcetti proposes to construct temporary shelters which will be nothing more than putting walls around homeless encampments so that other Angelenos don’t have to see tents on the streets. Channel 4 and Channel 2 chastize the homeless for preferring the streets to incarceration in a Garcetti shelter. The media is great at focusing on each homeless person with a criminal record while remaining mum about the criminals in city hall.
Rejection of the rule of law and reliance on princes always brings corruption and corruption always brings destruction. Just ask Lott’s wife.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams’ views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.)
-cw
