Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there is no more certain proof government has become utterly corrupt, than when investigative journalists are indicted, for investigating crime. Government that is corrupt is a form of despotism. Authoritarianism is characterized by arbitrary rule. That has been the case since the first human governments formed. Arbitrary rule is where laws are randomly applied and indiscriminately created. Those with political favor are above the law while those who lack political favor are below it’s protections. This is the case around the world where authoritarian governments rule. In fact, arbitrary rule is one way of measuring a government for the level of it’s despotism. Nations with law that is applied equally, without prejudice and created for the benefit of all, protect liberty, while those countries that have different standards depending on the person the law is applied to, protect some while abusing others and create law for the benefit of some protected class, are despotic. By this measure, more than some empty claim of democracy, a nation can be truly judged to be despotic or free.
In the past Turkey has been the most free of all Muslim nations. Under the Constitution of Ataturk Turkey’s citizens were allowed freedom of speech, religion and assembly. In the course of the centuries the people of Turkey have turned away from limited government and embraced despotic rule. They have elected an authoritarian. This is proven beyond any doubt by the treatment of journalists in Turkey. Some of which are being tried as you read this for exposing Erdogan’s corruption and face life in prison. Turkey, by this measure has become a tyranny, despite ostensibly being a “democracy.”
The US has taken an alarming jog into arbitrary rule in the last few decades. Many examples abound of this change in the nature of the US government, but few are as obvious or as compelling in making the case as the IRS targeting conservative groups and the recent indictment of the Center for Medical Progress, for exposing Planned Parenthood’s crimes. Both examples show, beyond a doubt, that law in the US is arbitrarily applied, is prejudicial, depending on the political standing of the individual or organization to which it is applied, and is created for the benefit of politically favored groups. Those people who advance the cause of arbitrary rule, and therefore despotism in the US, love to claim the US is a democracy, as if that justifies the descent into authoritarianism.
In a democracy, if the majority want your property they vote it away from you and take it by force, in a constitutional republic, the majority cannot take your property. Obviously the first is a form of authoritarianism. Regardless of the size of the authoritarian group, be it one man or a majority of the people, there is tyrannical power at work. Moreover, that the majority can simply vote to take the property of random people, arbitrarily, is the definition of arbitrary rule. In a democracy the majority rules arbitrarily. In a republic however, the actions of government is limited by the Constitution. This should be clear as glass to anyone with an open mind and enough brain power to operate their innards. The US was set up as a constitutional republic with limited power so tat arbitrary rule could not be applied yet here we have it, arbitrary rule, promoted by those who claim the US is a democracy.
Rome after Caesar was a despotic government but was called in name a republic. It had in theory, limited government that was supposed to protect the rights, property and lives of it’s citizens, but in fact the Caesar, backed by the praetorian guard, had the arbitrary ability to take what he wanted, apply laws randomly depending on the person’s political favor, and create law benefiting his political allies. You can call a snake an owl, but that doesn’t give the snake feathers, nor does it confer on the snake the ability to fly, it is still a snake. Calling a nation that practices arbitrary rule a democracy, republic or free, doesn’t make it so. The practice of arbitrary rule is the measure of authoritarianism regardless of what the elite want the people to think. The US has come very far indeed, very far away from it’s founding as a Constitutionally limited republic, to a chimera, one that calls itself free but is in fact has arbitrary rule. Unless we recognize it, and demand a return to Constitutionally limited government, we are complicit in the enslaving of our own children to a despotic government. I ask you, are we really that stupid and vile?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
