Avoiding A Civil War Requires Restoration of the Rule of Law

Today at the American Thinker Robert Vincent has an article entitled For Peace in America, We Must Return to the Rule of Law. I couldn't agree more. Along the way, he also makes clear that the current deep divide in America is not due to both sides. Rather, one side, the Left, has diverged in both the goals we aspire to, and the way we get there. They have, typically, thrown out the rule of law because it is perceived as slowing them down in their quest to achieve a socialist utopia. Conservatives have always held to the same propositions we do today: that our rights come from God, that the laws should apply equally to the rich and poor, to the connected and the those not connected. That if our successes were ours, then our failures are ours too. Vincent writes:

Those who try to explain America's current divisions by citing polarization into "extreme" camps miss a major aspect of the Trump phenomenon: Trump really doesn't represent an "extreme" political figure. The "extreme polarization" model might have more teeth if we had elected say, Ted Cruz, who is a doctrinaire conservative on every issue, but Trump really can't be accused of that; this was a major factor in his appeal. Like Reagan, he too was once a Democrat. He has taken positions that are very much at odds with the stereotype of the "Daddy Warbucks" image of a rapacious, uncompromising tool of Big Money portrayed by the Left. For example, just this past week, he overruled his education secretary and insisted that the Special Olympics remain funded. Though there has been some tinkering at the margins, entitlements have not been slashed. Though generally supportive of gun rights, he banned bump stocks and is favorably disposed toward "Red Flag" laws that are staunchly opposed by gun rights advocates. His SCOTUS appointments, while decidedly conservative, are hardly extreme right-wing ideologues.

The Left has simply become evil. That is not to say all registered Democrats or Democrat politicians are necessarily evil, but the national-level leadership of the party and their primary backers represent a genuinely evil, oppressive, authoritarian, and — not coincidentally — anti-Semitic program (under the thin veneer of vicious, rabid anti-Zionism). They either represent this mindset outright (e.g., vice DNC chairman Keith Ellison, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, etc.) or are unwilling to summon the elemental courage to oppose these trends effectively in their own party (e.g., Pelosi, Schumer). What is more, almost uniformly among their leaders — to include the likes of Pelosi and Schumer — they will stoop to any level of dishonesty and corruption in order to obtain or maintain power (e.g., the Stalinesque Kavanaugh "show trial" hearings, the vote fraud spectacles we saw in Florida and California this past midterm election, advocating for illegal aliens to vote, advocating lowering the voting age to 16, etc.). Most egregiously, there is the outrageous Mueller affair — along with the associated scandals of the previous administration (weaponizing the NSA for partisan political purposes, and so on), that even barnyard animals can see was an outright fraudulent and illegal attempt at reversing the result of a presidential election, and distracting from the very real crimes committed by the Obama administration and the Hillary campaign.

Consider also things like HR 1 that would essentially ensure no Republican ever got elected again, anywhere. It breezed through the House. It will be stopped by the Senate, of course, but consider a future where the Democrats hold both houses of Congress.

Consider not only the Mueller debacle, but the recent spectacle of the Jussie Smollett case. These examples illustrate what we "Trumpians" are really so fighting mad about. It isn't so much abortion, or gun control, or any of the other traditional conservative rallying points; it is the rule of law, the very foundation of what America was supposed to stand for. We are perfectly willing to peaceably debate the merits of all of these other issues in the public domain (assuming that there is a viable "public domain" in the form of an honest mass media, but that is another issue). We have already demonstrated during the previous administration that if we cannot have our way within the parameters of the ballot box, we will accept our losses and simply try to convince more voters to see things our way at the next opportunity. What we cannot and will not abide is an opposing side within our national community who insists on simply ignoring the rules, corrupting our national institutions, and trying to impose new "rules" designed to ensure that only its leaders and its agenda will ever prevail going forward.

...snip...

The collapse of the Mueller charade has served to move the hands of the civil war doomsday clock back a few notches, but now we need to see real criminals held accountable. Then perhaps we can talk about being one big happy national family again.

You know who these criminals are by now. It may seem petty that we want these people tried and convicted. But if there is to be peace and reconciliation, they must face the same justice system conservatives face.