The US is Not a Country of the Law and Order

I keep hearing this term, this statement, we are a country of the rule of law, or law and order. When did this happen? Maybe I've never understood our history.

I'm going to keep using rule of law, even though someone finally pointed out to the people saying it how terrible it sounds and switched to law and order. Let's keep saying the first one. It's more honest.

The people claiming this seem to forget we were founded in treason and open rebellion against a "God appointed king". Is that when we became a country based on the rule of law? When our founders got on a boat, stole a bunch of tea and destroyed someone else's property? I guess I missed how that was legal under the English penal code of the time. Then that whole going to war with their own country thing, defying gun control and refusing to house the soldiers they were supposed to. Wonderful, law abiding citizens. At least one of them under a death sentence when signing of the Declaration of Independence.

It doesn't stop there. I might be able to accept this idea, if it was just one oops we forgot treason wasn't legal, our bad, laws are more important than human rights. When Texas was fighting for independence they were again acting against the law. Our law obsessed country supported them. Shouldn't we have given Texas back to Mexico when they joined us if we were so obsessed what was legal?

The underground railroad was underground because it wasn't legal. People up north helped out with it. There's another oops.

Let's get a bit more modern. In the old west, who do people romanticize? The James brothers, fighting against the government, the banks, and the railroad because of what happened to their mother and her farm. Billy the Kid, who was put up for a posthumous pardon. Sure, some people think Wyatt Earp and his bunch were heroes, but given they were settling a vendetta, not enforcing the law, it actually goes to my point. In westerns we root for the black hat running for the Mexican border. Don't think the irony of that, with our current situation down there, is lost on me.

Think about the twenties and thirties. Back when our Constitution said we weren't allowed to drink. People look back on these times with romance and mysticism. Who are they idolizing? It's not Ness, who in his own words broke every law he swore to uphold. It's Capone, Dillinger, and their like. Men who did terrible things but cared for their families, protected their neighborhoods when the police wouldn't, and sometimes fed the poor.

Rosa Parks broke the law and she's an icon. Martin Luther King Jr. said it was important to break unjust laws and then did just that. He's a national hero.

There are some people we look at with admiration. I know there are more, these are simply a few off the top of my head. As a nation, we have always romanticized the outlaw. Because, honestly, they've been right, or partially so, so often how could we not? We are a country of compassion and morality. We stray, our ethics are not always pure and our empathy can be dulled, but they are our guiding stars. Not the letter of the law.

There have been countries in this world that were nations of the rule of law. Here's the problem, the term is the cry of the tyrant. I'm pretty sure someone pointed that out to the civil servants on the hill who call themselves leaders, and that is why they switched it up. The Third Reich loved the rule of law, so did Stalin. England shouted it at Ireland, the thirteen American colonies, and every other colony they oppressed and brutalized to make sure the sun never set on their empire.

Many countries have been run by the rule of law. Just not ours, not yet. Hopefully we can stay a country of the rule of the people instead.

Just a note. I found steemit a while ago and fell in love with it. So much that my first post was a lot like asking out that person who is just too good for you. So here is me, jumping in with both feet. Most of what I post will probably be author related, but I love politics and it seems like this might be a place where people can discuss thing civilly. Maybe I'm wrong about the rule of law. I'm open to the idea. I don't know everything, and unlike most the people I see talking today, I can admit that. Pretty sure I'm right about this one though.