Friday, June 22, 2012
The Rule of Man or the Rule of Law?
Which choice do you prefer?
It's a pretty simple question really. A question that lies at the heart of our American system of governance created oh, so many years ago.
The Founding Fathers decided they had enough of King George and his arbitrary laws for the Colonies. The system they came up with was revolutionary in its concept that we would be governed by the Rule of Law versus the Rule of Man.
The Rule of Man was the traditional form of governing until the American experiment. In this type of governance, the laws was nothing more than what the King or his council decided it was. There was no standards on how or when to create a law or how it would then be enforced. It was simply a matter for the "Rulers" to decide and foist upon its citizenry with little to no input from them.
If the Rulers decided to enforce a law or not, it was their decision alone. Pleading for consistency was useless. Common citizens having a say so in these laws was strictly forbidden. Rulers ruled and citizens obeyed. Period.
Oh sure, there was some attempts to involve the common citizen in some societies, the Greeks and Romans in certain ways, but typically the elitists controlled the final decisions, not the people.
What happened on this continent differs greatly. Here the people having lived under the English Crown so far removed from them physically yet still being subjected to taxes and rules coming from afar decided this was no way to run a country. So the people got together and crafted a set of rules that elevated the individual person to a higher position than any ruler.
These early revolutionaries, through the consent of the people living in this territory, created a governmental system that derived its powers from the people, the consent of the governed, a revolutionary concept for a revolutionary society. This was a 180 degree shift from the old ways where most people had no say whatsoever.
Since the government was formed by people and given its powers by the people, this government would be restricted in what things it could assert its power over in people's everyday lives. In addition, a written set of codified laws requiring ALL citizens as well as the government to abide by would alleviate the unfairness caused by a ruler(s) decision to enforce or not to enforce depending on who the offender was. All laws would be enforced and all men would be subject to them. A complete system of justice, understood by all and adhered to by all.
This is the Rule of Law. If the law is a bad law, it can be struck down or rewritten by the approved group of elected representatives whose job it is to write proper legislation for all. No selective enforcement. No favors to friends. The Rule of Law versus the Rule of Man.
This was the basis for our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the structure of the Constitutional Republic, which is far from a true Democracy. It has served us well for over 200 years even when severely challenged by power grabbers like Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR. We have survived because of the structure of our government.
Then along comes Barry Obama, a supposed Constitutional Law professor whose political leanings are closer to Marxism than to Capitalism, and all hell has broken loose. Barry seems to enjoy doling out privileges and entitlements whether the Constitution, the Rule of Law, gets in his way or not. Damn the Constitution, full speed ahead. This is dangerous to our well-being.
He decries the fact that his hands are tied because of our system of government so he bypasses this system whenever he thinks it will give him a political advantage or woo some specific voting group to his side. He is aided in these endeavors of lawlessness by the mass media and his leftist-leaning supporters who feel that our Constitution is old and useless and should be changing with the times.
Horseshit. This is the Rule of Man. And it stinks to high Heaven. Simply because he feels something is "the right thing to do" doesn't give him authority to do it. He believes it does but he is flat out wrong. Our system was not set up this way and he is destroying more of the system every single day.
The phrase I always seem to come back to is "Most men do not truly desire liberty, they wish only for a just master." Barry may really think he is that "just master". He is not. No man is or can be. Only God is a true "just master".
If you put your faith in the Rule of Man, you will sooner or later be treated wrongly and you will have no recourse.
If you put your faith in the Rule of Law, no man is above the law and, although Justice may not always be done, the odds are far more in your favor. And your conscious will thank you.
My nickel.
OH
It's a pretty simple question really. A question that lies at the heart of our American system of governance created oh, so many years ago.
The Founding Fathers decided they had enough of King George and his arbitrary laws for the Colonies. The system they came up with was revolutionary in its concept that we would be governed by the Rule of Law versus the Rule of Man.
The Rule of Man was the traditional form of governing until the American experiment. In this type of governance, the laws was nothing more than what the King or his council decided it was. There was no standards on how or when to create a law or how it would then be enforced. It was simply a matter for the "Rulers" to decide and foist upon its citizenry with little to no input from them.
If the Rulers decided to enforce a law or not, it was their decision alone. Pleading for consistency was useless. Common citizens having a say so in these laws was strictly forbidden. Rulers ruled and citizens obeyed. Period.
Oh sure, there was some attempts to involve the common citizen in some societies, the Greeks and Romans in certain ways, but typically the elitists controlled the final decisions, not the people.
What happened on this continent differs greatly. Here the people having lived under the English Crown so far removed from them physically yet still being subjected to taxes and rules coming from afar decided this was no way to run a country. So the people got together and crafted a set of rules that elevated the individual person to a higher position than any ruler.
These early revolutionaries, through the consent of the people living in this territory, created a governmental system that derived its powers from the people, the consent of the governed, a revolutionary concept for a revolutionary society. This was a 180 degree shift from the old ways where most people had no say whatsoever.
Since the government was formed by people and given its powers by the people, this government would be restricted in what things it could assert its power over in people's everyday lives. In addition, a written set of codified laws requiring ALL citizens as well as the government to abide by would alleviate the unfairness caused by a ruler(s) decision to enforce or not to enforce depending on who the offender was. All laws would be enforced and all men would be subject to them. A complete system of justice, understood by all and adhered to by all.
This is the Rule of Law. If the law is a bad law, it can be struck down or rewritten by the approved group of elected representatives whose job it is to write proper legislation for all. No selective enforcement. No favors to friends. The Rule of Law versus the Rule of Man.
This was the basis for our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the structure of the Constitutional Republic, which is far from a true Democracy. It has served us well for over 200 years even when severely challenged by power grabbers like Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR. We have survived because of the structure of our government.
Then along comes Barry Obama, a supposed Constitutional Law professor whose political leanings are closer to Marxism than to Capitalism, and all hell has broken loose. Barry seems to enjoy doling out privileges and entitlements whether the Constitution, the Rule of Law, gets in his way or not. Damn the Constitution, full speed ahead. This is dangerous to our well-being.
He decries the fact that his hands are tied because of our system of government so he bypasses this system whenever he thinks it will give him a political advantage or woo some specific voting group to his side. He is aided in these endeavors of lawlessness by the mass media and his leftist-leaning supporters who feel that our Constitution is old and useless and should be changing with the times.
Horseshit. This is the Rule of Man. And it stinks to high Heaven. Simply because he feels something is "the right thing to do" doesn't give him authority to do it. He believes it does but he is flat out wrong. Our system was not set up this way and he is destroying more of the system every single day.
The phrase I always seem to come back to is "Most men do not truly desire liberty, they wish only for a just master." Barry may really think he is that "just master". He is not. No man is or can be. Only God is a true "just master".
If you put your faith in the Rule of Man, you will sooner or later be treated wrongly and you will have no recourse.
If you put your faith in the Rule of Law, no man is above the law and, although Justice may not always be done, the odds are far more in your favor. And your conscious will thank you.
My nickel.
OH
# posted by OH @ 11:15 AM 
