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Liberal Principles #0
Oct. 11th, 2006 12:07 amI think this is really one of the fundamental starting points of liberalism (and most post-Enlightenment political thinking in the West). And again, it ties in together with a lot of the other things. It's got a nice short name, though.
Rule of Law.
The full phrase is "Rule of Law, not Men," but it's referred almost everywhere as Rule of Law. And what it means is simple, it means the laws apply to everyone. Even the people who write them. Even the people who enforce them. Everyone. There's no king who is the Law, or anything like that, the law applies to everyone. And yes, it's just messy human law, made through messy politics by politicians and regular people, but because of that, it can be changed when it needs to. When things change, or when enough people decide the law isn't needed any more, or when people decide the old law was a bad law.
And when this meets the other fundamental I already covered, equality, you get the idea that everyone is equal before the law, and entitled to the same protections, no matter who they are. Everyone's entitled to a fair trial, a competent lawyer, and so on. This is one of the traits that Republicans have tended to twist into "SOFT ON CRIME ARGLEBARGLE" lately, but honesty's not really one of the strong traits of the modern GOP.
This is one of the things about the Bush administration that's the most fundamentally dangerous to the way our country works. They don't think the rules should apply to them. They think they should be able to do whatever they want, because the're "good", and "fighting evil". So there's no need to explain their actions, or to mess around with things like hearings for detainees, innocent or guilty, etc. And that they're fundamentally wrong on.
No man is bigger than the law. And if the people in charge of creating and/or enforcing the law, what reason do any of the rest of us have to follow it? If the law's to mean anything, it has to apply to everyone. Even the President, even Congress. Everyone.
As before, comments and suggestions are encouraged, I'm gonna hit at least Security on the fundamental ideas, and probably Democracy, and maybe some others, or alter some of the ones I have with feedback, and then expand from how the fundamental ideas tie together and interact and use that to show where (at least my version of) liberalism ends up with actual policies, foreign and domestic.
Rule of Law.
The full phrase is "Rule of Law, not Men," but it's referred almost everywhere as Rule of Law. And what it means is simple, it means the laws apply to everyone. Even the people who write them. Even the people who enforce them. Everyone. There's no king who is the Law, or anything like that, the law applies to everyone. And yes, it's just messy human law, made through messy politics by politicians and regular people, but because of that, it can be changed when it needs to. When things change, or when enough people decide the law isn't needed any more, or when people decide the old law was a bad law.
And when this meets the other fundamental I already covered, equality, you get the idea that everyone is equal before the law, and entitled to the same protections, no matter who they are. Everyone's entitled to a fair trial, a competent lawyer, and so on. This is one of the traits that Republicans have tended to twist into "SOFT ON CRIME ARGLEBARGLE" lately, but honesty's not really one of the strong traits of the modern GOP.
This is one of the things about the Bush administration that's the most fundamentally dangerous to the way our country works. They don't think the rules should apply to them. They think they should be able to do whatever they want, because the're "good", and "fighting evil". So there's no need to explain their actions, or to mess around with things like hearings for detainees, innocent or guilty, etc. And that they're fundamentally wrong on.
No man is bigger than the law. And if the people in charge of creating and/or enforcing the law, what reason do any of the rest of us have to follow it? If the law's to mean anything, it has to apply to everyone. Even the President, even Congress. Everyone.
As before, comments and suggestions are encouraged, I'm gonna hit at least Security on the fundamental ideas, and probably Democracy, and maybe some others, or alter some of the ones I have with feedback, and then expand from how the fundamental ideas tie together and interact and use that to show where (at least my version of) liberalism ends up with actual policies, foreign and domestic.
