Where law ends, tyranny begins

Locke's writing stands as a condemnation of modern America

Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins - John Locke

Corruption in Congress and the White House goes unchecked, with occasional lip service to “investigating” issues, while those who would speak out, who stand on the religious and moral values of our founders are considered “extremists” and potential terrorists. Rioting masses burning buildings and looting businesses are defended by politicians, while selfie-takers escorted through the nation's Capitol by Capitol Police are jailed without trial. A president's drug-addicted son commits a felony by lying on a federal firearms form without consequence, while a pastor has his house raided by armed FBI agents simply because he believes unborn children should not be murdered. American citizens go homeless and hungry while immigrants illegally invade our country are given housing, food, and medical care. If law was at an "end," it is now.

Over the past few years (if not more), America has seen “liberty and justice for all” eschewed in favor of “tyranny for the masses and license for the preferred elite.” That there is a two-tiered (or more) justice system is both evident and anathema to the ideals espoused by our founding fathers and the documents they penned and signed. The words in the opening quote are often attributed to different historical figures from William Pitt to Margaret Thatcher, but it actually originates with John Locke.

In his Second Treatise of Government, John Locke wrote:

Sect. 202. Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins, if the law be transgressed to another’s harm; and whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command, to compass that upon the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another.

In the culmination of many decades of gradual increases in transgression of the Constitution, our government has reached a state of tyranny as Locke surmised would happen. Those who inhabit the offices of public service, from city to state to federal, regularly exercise authority not granted them by the law. They use alleged emergencies as excuses for obscene overreach by which our rights are rescinded and our liberty trampled. In Louisiana during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, citizens' right to keep and bear arms was *put on hold* in the name of a "crisis." What happened to Second Amendment's statement, "shall not be infringed"? When SARS-CoV-2 appeared on the scene in 2019, the government saw fit to revoke the people's right to free speech (among other rights and liberty), partnering with tech giants to censor online information that did not align with the government's approved narrative. What happened to the First Amendment's prohibition against the government "abridging"?

The government appears to enjoy litigating the limits of their authority, treading upon the Constitution along the way. This practice, about which Locke opined, is bringing us to the brink of tyranny:

Sect. 199. AS usurpation is the exercise of power, which another hath a right to; so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which no body can have a right to. And this is making use of the power any one has in his hands, not for the good of those who are under it, but for his own private separate advantage. When the governor, however intitled, makes not the law, but his will, the rule; and his commands and actions are not directed to the preservation of the properties of his people, but the satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge, covetousness, or any other irregular passion.

It is ironic then, considering Locke’s words chiseled above a window on the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building, the unbalanced fervor with which the Department of Justice has been filing and prosecuting cases. Perhaps the penultimate example lies in the cases of two presidents both in possession of government files. One president, whose case was pursued with the utmost enthusiasm, was found to be in possession of files which he had a right to possess and declassify. The other president, whose case has been slow-walked (if it could be said to be walking at all), was in possession of files which he had *no right* to possess and no authority to declassify. What's more, the first president had his files securely stored while the other held them in boxes in the garage of one of his homes, next to his car.

This unequal treatment under the law is precisely how Locke defined tyranny. Power is being exercised for private advantage. It is being driven by the will of those in power, not by the law. Much of what we see happening today is driven by the will of those in power, not by the law. We no longer have a government that represents and serves the people; we have an authoritarian crime syndicate that steals from its citizens and imposes its will at every turn. We are governed by serpents, and the serpents they serve. As Locke quoted King James from a 1609 speech to Parliament:

Therefore all kings that are not tyrants, or perjured, will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their laws; and they that persuade them the contrary, are vipers, and pests both against them and the commonwealth.