The Death of Rule of Law

The Bush administration is trying to gain the power to detain American civilian citizens indefinitely and without charges.

A major feature of the Bush administration's reign which has been largely missed by the news corps and the pundits is the erosion of rule of law. Bush prefers to enforce laws of his choosing (passive noncompliance), and when he doesn't like them, he often just ignores them (active violation). This is rule by man, and it represents a fundamental and dangerous shift in American governance.

It reminds me of a classic paradigm in old Communist China. China was (and still is, but to a lesser degree) run by renzhi (rule by individuals), as opposed to fazhi (rule by law). Renzhi is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes and is by definition antithetical to democracy. This change in American government is just one more example (along with torture, for example) of our succumbing to the corrosive practices of regimes we have long claimed to hate and whose existence long served as a cautionary counter-example to our greatest ideals.

Have the American people personally felt consequences from this yet? For the most part, no. But if history is any guide, societies usually realize these fundamental mistakes too late. Like the alcoholic who stops four drinks after he should, we are drunk on our own power and are consumed by notions that we are somehow different and "it won't happen to us."

Who will stop this bold power grab? Probably not Congress. I see it as likely that Republicans will retain both the House and the Senate. Americans are more concerned with tax cuts (in a deficit environment, mind you) and Christianism than with maintaining a free society with transparent governance. It is unlikely the that Supreme Court would stop this either, seeing as it's now loaded with justices deferential to boundless executive power.