Doug Wilson's Letter From America

Let's Not and Say We Did

Obama Nation Building
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, March 18, 2010

The rule of law is not to be confused with the bending of rules. Neither is the rule of law to be confounded with "making whatever you want to do legal." The rule of law means that everyone within a political system must be submissive to that which is lawful, and they must be submissive to a moral code that is out of everyone's reach. In other words, we mortals don't get to tinker with it. What we get to tinker with must conform to the law, but it is not itself that law. We cannot make dishonest theft okay by tricks in the voting process any more than we can knock down the stars with a pole. Thrones are established by righteousness (Prov. 16:12); it follows from this that righteousness is not established by thrones.

I am fond of quoting Madison's apt point in Federalist #51, where he says, "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." This cannot be done apart from a commitment to the rule of law on the part of both rulers and ruled. And when those who are governing refuse themselves to be governed, whatever they think they are getting away with, they are actually creating a nightmare scenario for themselves. It is far easier to give yourselves a pass "in this circumstance" than it is to keep the passes limited to you and your close friends after that point. When you exempt yourselves as members of Congress from obeying the law (for have you not deemed yourselves to have obeyed it?), it turns out that this is a game that 300 million can play. "Have you been honest in reporting your taxable income?" "Why, I deem that I have. Thanks for checking!"

This is a common failing of human nature. Those who have super-high views of authority (for those under them) can tend to have a really lax view for any authority that might happen to be above them -- in this case, the Constitution, which defines when a bill passes and when it doesn't.

So as appalling as this trillions-a-rama is, the real deficit spending that is going on here is the creation of deficit of civic respect, one that is the size of one of the larger moon craters. And when it comes to filling in that crater, we are nowhere near shovel ready. Congress has always been the brunt of jokes; they are soon to be a joke. They are soon to be the Joke.

When the behavior of Congress exhibits a contempt for the rule of law, it will not be possible to prevent the people at large from imitating that contempt, in multiple ways. For those who question this dire outlook, we could call this the "Do-As-I-Say-And-Not-As-I-Do-Bill," and see how it works out.