THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW

BY RUSSELL TURNER

 

COLLECTIVE BACK SCRATCHING

 

           

One of the greatest things that the founders of this nation gave us was the concept of equal justice for all citizens. The idea of everyone in this country being equal was unique to America; in other countries the penalty for killing a more prominent citizen was greater than the punishment for killing a lower class citizen. The founders believed in the rule of law; sadly because of human nature and cronyism we Americans are allowing the equal justice for all to be compromised.

 

I have found by personal experience that politics is one of the biggest obstacles to having good government. When people begin to love the prestige and the power of holding public office, their devotion to good government is first thing that starts fading. In our system of government there are many government positions (elected and appointed); in an ideal society all positions would work together under the rule of law for the benefit of society. If any position starts giving preferential to select individuals, the result is the same as putting a weak link in a chain.

 

I experienced it first hand when I was a County Commissioner. While in office I was often asked to provide favors to certain individuals in exchange for their support in the next election. In my area of the state this has become a common practice; to become a good ol’ boy you have to provide the favors and hope that you are not indicted by the local prosecutor, but if you are good friends with the local prosecutor you don’t have to worry about being prosecuted and you can ensure your reelection by providing the special favors. If you are a person such as I am who doesn’t believe in this collective back scratching, you are labeled a troublemaker and you will be under constant scrutiny.

 

I watched the case of the Democrat County Clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue same sex marriage licenses because of her Christian beliefs. For standing on her faith she was arrested and thrown in jail because she didn’t follow the letter of the law. I find it very hypocritical that she was thrown in jail for not following the letter of the law while our president and countless bureaucrats refuse to enforce the laws of this country that would secure our southern border. While the County Clerk in Kentucky refused to issue marriage licenses because of her Biblical beliefs, our president refuses to enforce the very laws that he sworn to enforce simply because he doesn’t agree with them.

 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embroiled in the email scandal. While most of her liberal supporters feel that she did nothing wrong and everything should go on as if nothing had happened, I wonder if they feel the way about General Petraeus who was severely punished for compromising far less classified material than Secretary Clinton. 

 

Why are we ok with the idea of arresting an unknown County Clerk in Kentucky while ignoring something far worse from our highest officials? There are many Americans who are starting to see through the cronyism and the collective back scratching, I just hope that there are enough of us to stop it.           

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