BEWARE: A Cautionary Note
I understand why many of you want Trump. But there is a tremendous danger. He may well solve many of the problems that face us. But the manner by which he does it is of extreme importance. The traditional threat to liberty has come throughout history from the “strong man,” the Condottierri, that man on horseback, who being decisive and resolute will solve the nation’s problems and save the republic. But beware, that is the formula for Caesar, for Peron, for Mussolini–for men I need not list who solve problems without concern for the rule of law. I am not saying that Trump will act that way. What I am saying is that YOU are genuflecting in the direction of lawlessness. Another man who will act with “a phone and a pen.”
Trump is a reaction to the wanton disregard for the rule of law we have witnessed in our life time–the weakness of Congress and unbridled Presidents and the usurpation of a Supreme Court that in action and inaction has shown contempt for the Constitution. Obama is such a man. And so was Bush in his own way–and so has our government acted contrary to the “ordered liberty” which is our ultimate safeguard. And now we are come to the crisis.
Beware: the remedy for lawlessness is not MORE lawlessness. The cure and antidote is the continence of deliberative restraint — it is character– and the most exacting regard for the laws that govern us. Not just in the judgments of for those who we elect, but in ourselves as the defenders of our own liberty. Any other solution is but an illusion, a projection of our will upon the protean magnetism of some powerful figure- a man on horseback. Beware. YOU are the guardian of our Constitution. And if YOU do not care for law, then the strong man has been given carte blanche– in YOUR name–because the “nation was in danger” and we needed a strong man to set it right. Beware.
This story is as old as the world.
Beware.
