By Irving Leemon, Contributing Columnist
I don’t know about the likes of Antonio Villaraigosa, Newt Gingrich, and Thomas Sowell. The first two advocate ignoring or breaking laws that they don’t like, in spite of the oaths that they took when sworn into office to uphold the laws. In those oaths they swore to uphold and enforce the laws of this country, state and city. The third obviously likes what they do about those laws as he is backing N. Gingrich who would like to take to task Superior Court judges who he disagrees with. First, when sworn into office, didn’t those elected officials place their hand on a bible to take their oaths? I guess that the bible and oaths don’t mean that much to them.
They apparently feel that their judgment and feelings are superior to that of judges and the people’s other elected representatives. It’s one thing to work to change the laws, and another to disobey them just because you don’t like them. That’s one of the great things about this country, if you don’t like a law, or the way that it is being enforced, it can be changed or voted out. Until it is changed, you have the right to voice you’re opinion, but not to ignore or break it. Antonio Villaraigosa tells the police to ignore the federal laws on immigration, and to treat illegals preferentially. He wants those illegals to be able to call someone to pick up their cars when stopped for drunk driving so that they won’t have to pay towing and storage fees. There’s nothing that gives the citizens of this country the same rights! The basic law of these United States is the separation of the three major bodies of the government, the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary.
The powers of government were separated so that each can watch over the other, not necessarily change each other. There is some cross over of powers such as; Supreme Court judges are appointed by the executive and approved by the legislative branch. Those judges are seated until either they retire or, are convicted by impeachment for “high crimes” against the government (such as plotting to over throw the government and weakening the country for the profit of an individual or group) or, when they die. However, once a law is passed it has to be obeyed until it is changed, declared unconstitutional, or is voted out. While there have been individuals who have disobeyed laws and succeeded in having them repealed, Excuse my ignorance, but I don’t know of any elected officials who have done so. I believe that elected officials should be held to a higher standard when using civil disobedience then other citizens. They can and should talk about changing laws or voting them off the books. However, they have taken an oath to uphold and enforce the laws, and therefore should not take part in, or encourage people to disobey them.
When they do, we have problems such as no government budget on time, and people being allowed to have a car without a license or insurance, or test to show that they understand the driving laws and enough English to read traffic and road signs. These can be problems that destroy property and maim and kill people. More and more talking heads and analysts are saying that a balanced budget can be achieved only by cutting back on Medicare. Wrong, I suggest that the health insurance and drug companies are to blame. Just look at their excessive profits while people are suffering from health problems. T. Sowell claims that Newt G. was responsible for the balanced budgets of the 1990’s. In truth, the budgets were due to both President Clinton AND N. Gingrich working together, and both legislative houses voting for those budgets.
In 1993 the congress, lead by Democrats, passed and signed by a Democratic president, a bill that cut taxes for small business and the poor, and incidentally, raised taxes on the wealthy. As a result, revenues shot up. This was done without a single Republican vote. Theis was the groundwork for a balanced federal budget. N. Gingrich was no longer in public office during the last two years of the balanced budgets. During his term as speaker the federal deficit rose by 800 billion dollars. T. Sowell also claims that N. Gingrich’s past moral decisions about his family is not predictive of his moral decisions as president. I submit that repeatedly being disloyal to one’s wedding vows, and his suggestion that students at failing public schools should go to work as janitors instead of trying to improve their situation should be warning signs of a self serving, self centered and an immoral individual. I do not trust him to clean my toilets, much less with the presidency of the United States. Agree? Disagree? Email me at ileemon@socal.rr.com