Rule of Law Versus the Rule of Man

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Frederic Bastiat said, "When law and morality contradicts each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law."

The rule of law, according to historical sources, carries with it an important connection to, as the Declaration of Independence puts it, the "Laws of Nature of Nature's God."  Natural Law, and the rights of the people that Nature's God entitles them to, are self-evident, and are "endowed" upon humanity by "their Creator."

The rule of man, however, is when people who believe themselves to be members of a powerful ruling elite dictate the nature of law, changing it at political whim, or to gain populist approval by altering the law outside the processes provided as a result of the whims of culture and society.  These kinds of changes are performed not by amending the United States Constitution, or following the process of making law through the representation of We the People, but by the orders of politicians, judges, and regulatory agencies.

When a society abandons the rule of law as established by a written constitution, refusing to use the processes of law, but instead change the law through other means, which is to embrace the rule of man rather than the rule of law, it is not very long before that society dances around the proverbial golden calf.

The Law of the Land is the standard from which the rule of law must be administered, and in America the law of the land is the United States Constitution.  With the Constitution comes processes regarding legislative powers, executive powers and judicial powers (all of which are supposed to be separate powers by separate branches of government that are not constitutionally allowed to collude with each other, or operate outside the authorities granted to them), as well as processes involving amending the Constitution, and processes that originally allowed the State legislatures to also be involved in the governing of the union of States.  However, through a usurpation of the United States Constitution, the federal government has circumvented the Constitution, enacting their own processes through the rule of man.

We must be reminded that as government acts in an unconstitutional manner, it is up to the citizens to set government back on the correct path.  After all, the Preamble of the United States Constitution does not begin "We the Politicians," or "We the Judges," or even "We the Ruling Elite."  The first three words of the Preamble of the Constitution are "We the People."

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary