Sunday, July 26, 2015

Bad governance

I've noticed, recently, a larger and larger percentage of people have started simply ignoring laws and doing what they were planning to do anyway.  Only a small minority of that group happens to be violent criminals. 

We have huge majorities of people ignoring gun registration laws in their states--far too many to prosecute.

We have increasing minorities of legitimate, peaceful, otherwise-law-abiding gun owners noting that most mass shootings have occurred in gun free zones, and beginning to do the common sense thing for their own safety, and ignoring legal postings.  And nobody catches on, because hello, concealed carry.  

We have whole states decriminalizing drugs that the federal government still consider illegal.

Hundreds of thousands of people are simply...ignoring bad law that steps on their own personal freedom.  There aren't enough prisons in the country to deal with all of them. 

Same with a whole lot of EPA over-regulation of private property, like the twunt that confronted a Florida homeowner to tell him that the "barbecue smell" and smoke from his grill was not allowed to leave his property.  Or the new regulations of wood-burning heating stoves. 

The federal government has forgotten a few different things that it learned during Prohibition (when most people were ignoring a major law that had been amended into the very Constitution): you can't legislate morality, and never pass a law that you know won't be obeyed. 

Seriously, the only thing the government is doing is ensuring that the people no longer respect the rule of law.  And that...that's the first step in making sure the government loses the consent of the governed.

6 comments:

  1. “I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
    ― Robert A. Heinlein

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    1. Precisely. Heinlein was a genius at articulating what most of us feel.

      Delete
  2. Well, since .gov is now ONLY enforcing the laws they want, why shouldn't we only obey the ones WE want??? Turnabout and all that...

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    Replies
    1. And thus is born contempt rather than respect. I'm not sure, yet, whether that's a bug or feature of the fed gov's long-term plans.

      And yes, that is only fair.

      Delete
  3. I don't need laws to tell me how to live a moral, productive life, and I damned sure don't need laws to force me to change my opinion of something.
    As far as my Rights go, I don't care what laws are on the books. I've studied the reasoning behind the Rights that are spelled out for us and the opinions of our Founding Fathers are all that matter.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed. Very much so.

      It takes a lawyer and malicious intent to be capable of misunderstanding what our Founding Fathers set up.

      Delete

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