Dear Editor,
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the Trump indictment has “irreparably harmed” the country. What on earth is he talking about?
Prosecution of misdemeanor or felony crime is harmful, illegal, unconstitutional, wrong?
The answer to his befuddling statement is found in a message on a popular T-shirt: “Trust God. Not government.”
McCarthy is trafficking in the popular libertarian philosophy, which is also the evangelical church argument, that government is evil. The fundamentalist church and its anti-civic bedfellows, patriotic libertarian Republicans, are the only forces for good on earth.
The problem with this is that our patriotic ancestors in 1776 were not fighting against government and law, they were fighting against “King’s government” and “King’s law.” And those bad laws of King George III are listed in painful detail in the Declaration of Independence.
Our ancestors wanted “People’s government,” and “People’s law.” When laws are made by the people, they are blessed by God, and people have respect for them.
McCarthy is trying to use our ignorance of history to return the nation to British-style autocratic government in the form of Donald Trump, himself, or a new Republican leader in 2024.
I get it. And now you get it too.
