Equal Justice For All

Since a little kid I’ve been saying the pledge of allegiance, no doubt you have too; “I pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the republic “… yada, yada, yada … “with Liberty and Justice for All.” Our elected leaders regularly reaffirm this pledge. The Supreme Court Building in DC has inscribed over its doors “Equal Justice Under the Law” Our Constitution starts out in the Preamble to “Establish Justice.” The Declaration of Independence is almost entirely based on the effect of the colonies not receiving equal justice from the King. When it was found that our constitution did not adequately provide equal justice for all we’ve added the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 24th, amendments. The people of this nation have not copied or tried to emulate other nations, but have set an example, worked and fought for Equal Justice for All.

The concept of Equal Justice for All is not new, The earliest reference I can find to is it from the Bible, Leviticus 19:14-16 "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly". Unlike virtually every other nation in the world, our country has tried to create a system of governance that upholds the idea of Equal Justice For All, or "rule of law." B.H. Obama clearly does not believe in equal justice. The concept may be dead with the current majority of leaders in our formerly great nation. The USA appears to be moving away from its constitutional foundation and towards some bastardized oligarchy.

Consider a regular person who’s made some bad financial decisions, too big a mortgage, racked up big credit card debts, and is paying for a car they can’t afford, so is forced into bankruptcy. The court sells off all the assets and repays the debts according to the law. Since the mortgage and car were secured by the assets in question they get paid off first, if there is any remaining the unsecured credit cards get what’s left. Consider GM’s bankruptcy, rather than follow the law, the Obama administration forced agreements which paid off the unsecured creditors (Trade Unions) first, and forced acceptance of minimal payments to the secured mortgage holders of GM property. This is not equal justice; this is political payback for union support. GM should have been held to the same standard every other person in debt in this country is held to.

Our system has been perverted by both parties. Instead of equal justice for all, we are now seeing a different set of rules for the rich and powerful than for the people. Our elected leader in Washington, Democrat or Republican, no longer take their direction from the people, but from corporate benefactors whose wealth and access shape policy. The current administration has openly offered political jobs in order to sway elections. Corporations and the super rich have made a virtual science of manipulating the system to protect themselves from competition and regulation and our self interested politicians fight each other to accommodate them. We end up with a system where profits are privatized and the debts are socialized. For the ruling elite it’s a great system, if your decisions are profitable you get to keep the profits, if your decisions are not profitable you get to pass your losses to the tax payers. The whole concept of “Too Big to Fail” is antithetical to the concept of Equal Justice for All. The banks and Wall Street, should have been allowed to fail just like main street. Forcing Main Street (you and I) to absorb and take the debt of the banks and Wall Street is not Equal Justice; It’s not free enterprise, it’s not capitalism, it’s not even socialism. We are starting to look not like a Democracy or Republic but a Kleptocratic Oligarchy.

Our tax funds which could have been used for hospitals, schools, roads, parks and the like were used to purchase GM and make it a government/union owned corporation at the expense of its investors and tax payers. Our tax funds which could have been used for hospitals, schools, roads, parks and the like were used to bail out banks which made very bad business decisions. Our tax funds which could have been used for hospitals, schools, roads, parks and the like were used to create a slush fund for the president to pay off political cronies. These are the actions of a Kleptocracy not a republic.

From Wikipedia

The effects of a kleptocratic regime or government on a nation are typically adverse in regards to the faring of the state's economy, political affairs and civil rights. Kleptocracy in government often vitiates prospects of foreign investment and drastically weakens the domestic market and cross-border trade. As the kleptocracy normally embezzles money from its citizens by misusing funds derived from tax payments, or money laundering schemes, a kleptocratically structured political system tends to degrade nearly everyone's quality of life.

In addition, the money that kleptocrats steal is often taken from funds that were earmarked for public amenities, such as the building of hospitals, schools, roads, parks and the like - which has further adverse effects on the quality of life of the citizens living under a kleptocracy. The quasi-oligarchy that results from a kleptocratic elite also subverts democracy (or any other political format the state is ostensibly under).

It’s scary how the effects of our current leadership resemble those Wikipedia describes as the effects of a kleptocracy.