Freedom from Chaos

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the need for laws in order to be free from chaos. Whenever there is a free society, each member of it has certain rights that no individual or government authority can infringe upon. The laws are in place in order to protect and preserve individual privacy and rights.

            The law is a stated principle of what is acceptable in the society and what is not. It establishes standards, maintains order, resolves disputes, and protects rights. In order to be just, the law must apply equally to all members of the society, and all members of the society must accept the rule of law. This applies to political parties as well as individuals.

            Columnist David Harsanyi posted an interesting article at TheDaily Signal about the refusal of the Left to accept the results of the system when things do not go their way. It seems that they cry that the “system is broken” whenever the law goes against them. Harsanyi begins with this statement.

If you’re under the impression that the system exists merely to facilitate your partisan agenda, it’s not surprising that you also believe it’s broken every time things don’t go your way. This is why so many Democrats argue that we should “fix” the Electoral College when they lose a presidential election and “fix” the filibuster when they run the Senate and now “fix” the Supreme Court when they don’t run the Senate.

            Hillary Clinton is still wondering “What Happened?” in the presidential election and may be considering a third run at the office. Harry Reid was ecstatic when he changed the filibuster law, apparently thinking that Democrats would remain in control of the Senate forever. Now they are upset because they have little or no ability to stop Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the empty seat at the U.S. Supreme Court. Harsanyi explains the current situation as follows.

The real anxiety driving liberals is the reality of President Trump’s getting another Supreme Court justice, the kind of nominee any conservative president would most likely have picked. This person will presumably help constrain progressive policies because many of those policies rely on coercion and unconstitutional intrusions into personal freedom. Maybe it’s not the system that’s broken but rather the left’s agenda.

The arrogance of the age – maybe every age – is that intellectuals believe, by default, that they’re smarter, more moral and more evolved than those who came before them. We often hear the left griping about the antiquated nature of the Constitution. It was Klein, after all, who once claimed that the Constitution is a confusing document because it is old.

We can disagree about the usefulness of Enlightenment ideas. But when Klein contends that the “chaotic, ugly realpolitik that followed Justice Antonin Scalia’s death” necessitates a “fix,” he is being transparently partisan. Nothing is more chaotic than altering the rules every time you experience a political defeat. And nothing says realpolitik more than attempting to “fix” a system for practical political concerns when your ideological goals fall short.

            The Left is continually trying to tweak the Constitution and the laws of the land for their political benefit, but they do not like the results when their alterations are used against them. There will be much political turbulence in the months ahead as the Left fights against Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. We should all buckle our seat belts and hold on tightly because the ride will be rough.