The rule of law is for days such as this, when the passions and prejudices of disagreement strain not just our emotions, but our union, the bond between states and people, the thing that makes us America and Americans.
We find ourselves in very different camps for very different reasons doing exactly the same thing – questioning and rejecting the structure and safeguards of our Constitution and Republic.
Republicans question and disavow the Electoral College, calling its actions and decisions illegitimate. Democrats question and disavow the Supreme Court, calling its actions and decisions illegitimate. On the extremes, one stormed and desecrated the United States Capitol, and the other threatened a justice’s life and shouted for a rejection and replacement of the court.
The governing emotion is anger, the kind that leads to a revolution of guillotines. But we have always been a people of reason, with revolutions arising from and culminating in elected assemblies and respected courtrooms. That’s why our soldiers and our office holders swear fidelity to the Constitution, why our children pledge allegiance to the Republic for which our flag stands.
We believe in the Constitution, and the rule of law which springs from it.
And that “we” can’t be situational or divided – it can’t depend on whether or not we agree with outcomes or whether or not it helps our chauvinistic cause. The “we” of “We the People” must support and abide by the functions of constitutional institutions and processes or the “we” of “We the People” will stop being sovereign – stop being the power and purpose of our government and society.
Put another way, you have to follow the rules whether you win or lose. And rejecting them when you lose means that no one – and certainly not all of us together – will ever win again. It is God who makes us free, but it is the law which keeps us free and referees the naturally competing interests of a large and varied society.
And so we have elections, committed to accepting their outcome, whether we win or lose.
Just as we have judicial review, committed to accepting its outcome, whether we win or lose.
That is rule of law – when we follow the system we have created, instead of slavishly following personalities or passions.
Here’s what that means as a practical matter.
Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. The people voted, the states tabulated, electors were selected to the Electoral College and the Electoral College voted, and Joe Biden won. Period. You can wish it was different, you can resolve to campaign harder next time, but you cannot reject it – not without engaging in the petty treason which comes from not bearing “true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution.
Likewise, Roe v Wade was overturned. The Constitution was written and ratified, the people elected senators and presidents, lawful nominations and confirmations took place, the court was constituted and laws were written, later to be brought to the review of the federal courts and their appellate process, until the Supreme Court considered and voted as law provides, and Roe v Wade was overturned. Period. You can wish it was different, you can resolve to campaign harder next time, but you cannot reject it – not without engaging in the petty treason which comes from not bearing “true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution.
Both Democrats and Republicans are engaged in an insurrection of words, fomenting rage and discord, as they seek to delegitimize either an election or a decision. There is no moral difference. They are exactly analogous. Woke and MAGA are the same thing. Resistance to and attacks upon constitutional processes are equally threatening to American freedom. Rejecting and condemning the Supreme Court is exactly the same as rejecting and condemning the Electoral College – and vice versa.
Our Republic has weathered many storms, and survived them all by holding tight to our Constitution and the rule of law. In the present day, with a people taught to resent their national institutions instead of revere them, we lack both understanding and commitment, and we are subject to manipulation.
And self-serving politicians on both sides know that.
They fan the flames of aggrievement and rage, stampeding us like cattle, hoping to direct us to their own empowerment, happy to destroy our society in hopes of picking over the remains.
They would have us reject a presidential election, and a Supreme Court decision. They would have us reject the Constitution which has safeguarded us for more than two centuries.
Because they know that when we abandon the law we surrender our freedom, and that’s what they want most of all.