Hi, my name is Kevin, and I’ve been away for a little while.
In trying to get caught up on my blog reading, I ran across a link to a little piece by Daniel Greenfield over at Sultan Knish that I think more people (lots more people) should read. It’s titled The Supersessionists of the Liberal Confederacy, (h/t Otto). Daniel’s premise is that, well:
Ted Cruz has come the closest to understanding that the other side just doesn’t play by any rules, but lacks the leverage to make much of that. Cruz is still a product of a system in which there are rules. And that system is as unfit for challenging the left-wing radicals running things as trying to play a game of chess against an opponent who feels like moving the pieces any which way he feels like and always claims to have won.
Law is a consensus. If you stop keeping the law, the police arrest you. If a gang of left-wing radicals in a basement somewhere stopped following the law, they might be locked up. It’s not a certain thing considering that mad bomber Bill Ayers is a university professor. But once those same left-wing radicals control much of the system and the media that reports on the system, they have no reason to follow the law.
He explores the consequences of this loss of consensus. To wit:
On one side there is no consensus and no law; only sheer will. On the other there is a body of legal traditions going back centuries.
It’s painfully clear that two such approaches cannot coexist within a single government. And those who have the power and follow no rules have the supreme advantage of wielding government power without the legal restrictions that were meant to bind the abuse of that power.
I’ve read the piece twice. I don’t think he’s wrong.
I’m reminded once again of Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, his magnum opus. I recommend you read (if you haven’t) my überpost on it from January, 2010.
This will not end well.
Edited to add: Just after hitting “Publish” on this piece, I went and read Bill Whittle’s latest essay, Bamboo Spears. Also highly recommended.