I’m never sorry to have taken the time to read and absorb what Glenn Greenwald writes.
The current approval rating of the U.S. legislative branch is 14%, and my own explanation of that is simple: they’re the people’s representatives in these very challenging and worrisome times, and they’re not (at all) doing what we elected them to do. Greenwald’s premise here is that they behave this way because there are no meaningful consequences for ignoring our best interests and acting in their own. This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue; as you might have noticed, in terms of their actions the line between the parties has effectively disappeared in recent years.
It doesn’t take long to think of several examples of government entities breaking the law and then retroactively excusing themselves and their partners. The FISA “compromise” is only the most recent example. And with 1 in 100 Americans in jail or prison (read that again) and over 1,000,000 citizens on the DHS terrorist watch list, the way our public servants view accountability (theirs vs. ours) appears seriously out of kilter. The why of it all is what Greenwald explores in this article.
…the idea that the Rule of Law is only for common people, but not for our political leaders and Washington elite, is pervasive among the political and pundit class, in both parties. While common Americans should be imprisoned in record numbers when they break the law, the worst that should happen to the political elite when they commit crimes is that they should be voted out of office. That’s the dominant mentality governing how our political system works.”
