After the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin walked out of the building, a woman reportedly asked him what form of government our new nation would have. He replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it”.
Another one of the Founders; Samuel Adams has been widely quoted; “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”
In our Declaration of Independence, many of the outrageous abuses by the King of England were cataloged as reasons to separate from the Crown and form our new nation. Often forgotten was that the King was repeatedly guilty of ignoring the rule of law in matters that applied to himself and his official representatives in the Colonies.
Fast forward 240+ years to today and we are seeing two sets of legal standards applied in America: one for the rich and powerful and another for everyone else. While Hillary Clinton skates for things that Michael Flynn is being prosecuted for having done, we see simple sailors being prosecuted for serious crimes for taking photos inside of submarines, and farmers are charged with tens of thousands of dollars in civil penalties over filling in a low spot on their properties.
Just because a group is no longer in power does not mean we, as a nation should give them a pass on lawlessness. Much of the reason for our success as a nation has resulted from our fundamental fairness and property rights. I’m not speaking here of criminalizing policy differences, but of the actual criminal abuses of power for personal gain.
My fear is that unless the Clinton’s are properly investigated, and if necessary prosecuted, over things like the Uranium One deal; or we let Eric Holder escape responsibility over the Fast and Furious debacle; or people like Jamie Gorelick are allowed to escape any liability over the “legal wall” constructed between the FBI and the CIA prior to 9-11 (let’s not forget the tens of millions she was paid as she oversaw the housing bubble burst while at Fannie Mae), we are no better than a banana republic.
From 41,000 feet in the air, it’s pretty obvious that we need to defend our Republic from two sets of rules: One for you and me, and another set of rules for the rich and powerful. If we don’t, America might go past what a friend of mine observed as a line we don’t want to cross. That line is where both the vote has actually stopped working and we actually have to start shooting the bastards.
photo credit: Excerpted from: David Paul Ohmer San Francisco – North Beach “Washington Square – Ben Franklin” via photopin (license)
