Responsibility, Liberty, Anarchy

Our country is based on the dual principles of liberty and responsibility. It is unfortunate when these come into conflict with one another.

Exhibit one is the Democrats in the Wisconsin state legislature. When outnumbered by a Republican majority, the Democrats did the one bold move they had left: they ran away. Rather than be subjected to a political loss and participate in the process, the Democrats sidestepped proper procedure and physically fled the state.

One fleeing senator even said that it was his job to run away. Interesting logic…he was doing his job by not doing his job.

To be fair, the Democrats fled because there was no legal and possible way they could prevent the Republican majority from enacting a law they felt was detrimental to their constituents. This act was an act of political sabotage and an act of protest. The only problem was that it contradicts the oaths the Democrats took when they became members of the Wisconsin chamber.

Our country was built on political protest. The Liberty Tree, the Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty all centered around the idea of dramatic actions to protest perceived injustices. These actions caught people’s actions and imaginations. They sparked a new movement and helped people fight for liberty on behalf of the entire country. In that vein, we can understand what the Democrats in Wisconsin did. Backed into a corner, they did what they felt was right for their people.

But that is where the similarity ends.

The actions that transpired before the American Revolution were carried out by people who had no power. They were not elected officials and therefore could not affect change. They were done to protect the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They inspired people to a dramatic change with concrete principles (repeal of the Stamp Act, etc).

What is interesting to note, is that when the time came for the rebels (Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, etc) to take their duly elected seats (first at the Continental Congress and then at various government seats), they abandoned their radical behavior in favor of taking on the responsibility of governing.

And that is the difference…and its an important difference. In Wisconsin we see the opposite practice: duly elected officials abandoning the responsibility of governing in favor of dramatic actions.

The dangerous thing about Wisconsin is this abandoning of responsibility. In politics, you will sometimes win debates and you will lose debates. That is politics. When the Republicans showed up to the US Congress during the Health Care Debate bill, they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would lose that vote. They showed up. They argued. They lost. If they had run away like the Wisconsin Democrats, surely there would have been blood in the press over the issue. But they stayed and lost. They governed responsibly.

When a duly elected body begins to ignore the rules and abandon their responsibility, anarchy ensues.

This week we also learned that the President of the United States directed the Attorney General of the United States to ignore a law of the United States. President Obama told Eric Holder not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) of 1996 because President Obama does not believe in the morality of DOMA.

The problem with this is that the President of the United States is not in a position to judge the constitutionality or the morality of the law (that’s why we have the Supreme Court), but rather he is to enforced the law as it stands.

When George W. Bush was President, he was asked about his enforcement of Roe v Wade. Bush, an avowed opponent of abortion, agreed that since he was president, he needed to enforce the law. Bush did work within the legal boundaries to overturn the law, but he never disobeyed the law or gave up his responsibility in governing because of his objection to the law.

The problem with Wisconsin and with the President’s decision is this: we have procedures and laws and regulations for reasons. If we allow our legislatures to abandon their responsibilities because they don’t agree with what is happening, then we will begin the long descent in anarchy.

There are many laws that people do not agree with. Our country was designed to be based on compromise to ensure (as much as possible) that our liberties would not be infringed upon. Our government was designed to protect as many people as possible. Ironically, our government was also designed to protect us from the very actions that helped create this nation.

One thing I love about the United States is that we are a mixture of Liberty and Responsibility. We must hold those principles in balance or else we will head towards anarchy.