Will Conservatives Destroy the Government?
Will conservatives refuse to pay their taxes? Will they refuse to comply with what they view as unjust laws? Will conservative states make good on threats to secede from the United States? These are just some of the ideas that are being talked about since the Supreme Court subverted the rule of law in the recent gay marriage rulings and the IRS acknowledged targeting TEA party groups.
Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down the 1996 Defense Of Marriage Act that was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president. They simultaneously vacated a ruling on California’s Proposition 8, which defined marriage as one man and one woman. Proposition 8 was voted on and passed by a direct referendum and DOMA was passed by the elected representatives of the people. This has many conservatives asking whether democracy matters anymore.
They wonder why they should respect any law, when the courts and elected leaders do not. They wonder why they should follow the laws of a government that unfairly and openly targets them and persecutes them. They wonder how such a government can maintain its legitimacy or whether it should. In short, many are asking if this is the time to end it all and disband the United States.
How bad is it? It was so bad that when the rulings were announced, even justices on the Supreme Court were outraged. With regard to the DOMA ruling, Justice Antonin Scalia declared the end of democracy:
In his blistering dissent on the DOMA decision, Scalia said the self-governing power of the people has been eroded. He described the “assertion of judicial supremacy over the people’s representatives in Congress and the executive” as “jaw-dropping.”
In the ruling on California’s Proposition 8, Justice Kennedy expressed a similar sentiment:
Their reasoning drew a testy dissent from Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a Sacramento native, who wrote that the decision “disrespects and disparages” California’s political process — a staple of which is the ballot initiative.
The court, Kennedy wrote, did “not take into account the fundamental principles or the practical dynamics of the initiative system in California.”
How long the country can go on when even the members of the Supreme Court feel this way remains to be seen.
June 28, 2013 at 9:37 am Comments (0)