Are We in a World Without Rules? And when did it all begin?  It didn’t used to be this way.

 It could have been with the O J Simpson verdict, vindicated despite blood evidence and an attempted escape.  The jury seemed to take its instructions from Johnny Cochran,  “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.” (forgotten by the prosecution was the fact that leather, when wetted, will shrink.)  It reminds one of “grading your own homework” as investigations conducted by Eric Holder’s Department of Justice are “focused” on the Obama administration, or on itself.

Or did it begin when Sandy Berger, the former National Security advisor to President Clinton, strolled into the National Archives to abscond with certain materials for reasons still unknown. Berger was embarrassed but mostly unpunished. He pled guilty, and the matter shrank into forgotten history. 

As the hockey coach yelled at the referee, “Call the rule book.” And that is precisely all we ask.

You can’t do that.  You shouldn’t do that. You aren’t supposed to do that.  That’s not right.  It’s against the rules. There will be consequences.

Not all rules are law, but laws are essentially rules.  The grand implication is that if you do something wrong, something against the rules or the law, there will be some type of penalty or retribution cast upon you.  If p then q.  We seem to have been cast adrift from that notion.  There never seems to be “q” anymore.

Internationally, treaties are the agreements between two or more parties or countries.  Broken treaties suggest a dishonesty on the part of one of the parties.  And as noted in 1861, an agreement broken by one side is broken on all sides.

Domestically, our rule book is the Constitution.  However we witness self expansion of the delineated restrictive powers of the Executive and Judicial branches of the federal system.  The Executive branch seems bent on rewriting laws and legislating via regulations.  The rules are ignored. The Judicial branch picks and chooses the laws it wishes to judge.  Immigration laws are clear and codified, but these laws are not enforced.  The rules are ignored for political expediencies.  There appears no consequence for rule breaking.

Our government’s repeated lying to the public about forced health insurance legislation, or misinforming the population regarding the attacks on our Benghazi consulate has no serious repercussions but merely some unwanted public relations discomfort for Obama, Rice and Clinton.

The IRS apparently broke rules in politicizing tax exempt status.  Rules broken.  No one is held accountable.  Lois Lerner smirks as she takes the fifth. She knows there are no rules.  Congressional committees demand documents in this matter as well as Fast and Furious.  A game of partial compliance and redacting ensues. Internationally we have cheating by Russia regarding the START (treaty) as they test missile systems against the covenants of the agreement.  Iran continues to enrich uranium, according to the Israelis and Syria used and probably still has the forbidden chemical weaponry.  Crimea is taken, Ukraine is violated.

Slipping and slouching into a world without rules, or consequences.  Sue the President?  Impeach Eric Holder?  “That is politically unwise. We can’t drag the country through that!” 

How far we have moved off the point. In 1942 during WWII,  German saboteurs were captured in Florida.  “The six condemned saboteurs were executed by electric chair in Washington, D.C., on August 8, 1944.  Nearly five years ago, Nadal Hassan killed 14 people in cold blood.  Swift punishment is the rule. At least it used to be. 

If we can’t drag the country through suing or impeaching, if we can’t execute someone who killed 14 people in cold blood, what we are doing instead is dragging the country through a period of disregard for rules and consequences.

James Longstreet