Even before the United States became a country, Americans already had the habit of going crazy even about minor violations of abstract principles.
“In other countries, people … play from a bad principle in government just for a real complaint,” Observed Edmund BurkeThe great British statesman and philosopher, in 1775. But in the United States, “they anticipate evil and judge the pressure of the complaint by the evil of the principle. The evil distance government appears; and turn off the approach of tyranny in each contaminated breeze.”
The United States obsession with slippery slopes used to be frustrated. Support the rights of weapons, but the prohibitions of machine guns or blows of blows do not bother me too much. I am a passionate defender of parents' rights, but child abuse is intolerable. I believe that political discourse is inviolated, but the laws of obscenity are fine for me.
The answer to such nuances often was: “If the government can do this, what to avoid doing [insert something much, much worse]. “
My answer was usually “we”, that is, Americans. Voters, politicians, intellectuals, et al. You can make distinctions based on the context, reason and culture that still respect a principle. The trick, however, requires respecting the principle, even when it is inconvenient.
In the last month, the president has sent troops, now armed, to the Columbia district apparently to combat an “emergency” of poorly defined crime. Due to the special constitutional status of DC, it has the authority to do so. But he is already talking about taking the show on the way to Chicago, Baltimore and New York, all the cities that are administered by Democrats.
The Gambit DC, following a previous scheme in Los Angeles, intends to force Democrats to talk about crime (in which they are very bad). But it also seems to have the intention of normalizing the use of the army in the American soil, due to the president of the president, an idea that is directly contrary to the law and constitutional order.
The Trump administration has acquired a 10% Intel participation and Want more Such “offers”. He attacked the house of an outstanding critic, John Bolton, without much explanation. Annoyed by the comment of the former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, the president threatened to reopen a criminal investigation in which Christie was already free of irregularities. Trump dismissed the head of the Office of Labor Statistics to release data that he did not like, and dismissed the head of the defense intelligence agency allegedly for a preliminary finding that contradicted his statements of military success (this after the previous purges of the Pentagon).
Trump successfully ordered a governor and a republican legislature of Texas Priant, elected officials who do not respond to the federal government, to redesign state maps to produce more friendly districts with Republicans. He has declared that he will lead an effort to dictate how the elections are held, a function on which he has no legal or constitutional authority, because states are simply “agents” of the federal government.
Since assuming the position, Trump has challenged the explicit instruction of Congress without law to force the sale or termination of the application of Chinese Spyware, Tiktok. Last week, the White House opened a Tiktok account.
Democrats have lent alarms about this barely exhaustive list. Obviously they are right about the amazing hypocrisy of the Republican Party. If a Democratic president did any of these things, the republican outrage would be biblical.
But the problem is bigger than that.
For all my adult life, when conservatives expressed concerns about the government that was entrusting in constitutional rules and norms, democrats (and the media) almost invariably responded with derogatory and teasing. This is one of the reasons why the new right no longer cares about those rules and norms. They have convinced that the left only cares about such things when they limit Republicans.
Contempt generates more contempt. “Rules for you, power without restrictions for me” is a safe way to destroy all norms.
I am not saying that what Trump is doing is not worse than the Democrats did, or wanted to do, but they failed. But in our policy, the ratchet effect always leads to increasing violations, partly because each side greatly exaggerates the transgressions of the other.
Point out that Trump is putting together the justice system or benefiting the government, the answer is “they did first.” There is something really there. But when the Democrats did such things, the Republicans shouted that it was wrong. Now, the incorrectness of a team is the justification for even more erroneous.
Party is not new. But supporters used to respect the rules as a way of making sure they were followed when their team was out of power. That is what has been lost: the idea that the rules should also be applied to their team.
UNKNOWN: @Jonahdispch
