Legitimacy under assault
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 By Mike Maurer
Things are worse than we realize. Whatever the glue is that holds a nation together-surely countless folks spend countless lives arguing about that, formally and informally-there certainly is a glue. It has to be found both in formal mechanisms such as the Constitution and the state constitutions, and it has to be found informally, too, in the countless social and cultural relations that make up law, government and society generally.
Every 5-4 decision out of the U.S. Supreme Court and every 4-3 decision out of the Ohio Supreme Court attacks this notion. It reveals, or at least manifests–and if it manifests long enough, reveals–that law is a false construct. It’s all about power. And because it’s a false construct, it’s also about deception. That doesn’t mean there is no law; it means only that it isn’t found in these courts, and they are the only courts we have.
It’s the same for elections. Election good faith has been manipulated on occasion throughout history, but it has been small scale and specific, power plays here and there, even if important ones, until 2000. The attacks that started there, not by Bush, who was the mere victim of being in a close election and the avatar of a media-condemned philosophy, have continued and worsened. Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was vilified groundlessly, far more because of his race and party and the general milieu that came from Florida than for any failings, which, to the extent he had them, were unremarkable and indistinguishable from any other secretary of state.
Now the approved party holds the office, and the abusive tactics continue to escalate. Secretary of State Brunner issued a statement yesterday that she was going to prosecute and detect “any kind of fraud, be it voter registration fraud, illegal voting or vote suppression.”
There’s the rub. Voter suppression is a code word (code words being a concept our friends on the Left are so fond of). There is no voter suppression anywhere, and Brunner has no evidence of it. For her to even mention it is a grotesque violation of good faith. It’s a mindset. Stealing an election is moral and right, because you are moral and right. Stopping someone from stealing an election, well, that’s voter suppression, and that’s a crime.
Losing the glue of good faith and truth is dangerous. Perhaps it’s inevitable in a close election, and we’ve now had three of them, at least so far. Certainly many Democrats believe they have a Reaganesque-blowout opportunity, but they won’t feel comforted if it happens. They’ll just move their assault on individual freedom to a new forum. Nor is it likely to be any better if McCain wins; he is as likely as not to continue what are at root big government policies, and the bitter solvent that destroys our national coherence will be as likely as not to continue.
