Americans pride themselves in their “government under the law”. But what does the term truly mean? It cannot mean that the government is under some special law, unique to itself; even the worst of the communist governments could claim that. It cannot mean that the government is under the same laws as the people, but that those laws may contain special exemptions for the government; that would be meaningless, not restraining government in the least. Only one meaning of the term is possible: that the government be subject to the same laws as the people.
And how well does the US government adhere to this standard? It prohibits theft, but takes a greater portion of the freely earned wages of its citizens than a legion of thieves. It investigates oil companies for “extraordinary profits”, but itself profits more from each gallon of gasoline sold than the oil companies. The oil companies have the excuse that they are the center of a highly volatile market. What excuse has the government, whose sole contribution to the production of oil is a mountain of pointless regulation?
The United States Government is not a government under the law, for it violates in every action the laws it has established. It, like all governments, is founded on force, without which it could never survive. And yet it attempts to restrain force. The US government is subject to its own law alone, which is really no law whatsoever.
I think I’m going to like this blog.
Well said.