Why the Current American Political Situation is So Dangerous

This is a big picture post so I will cut to the chase.  The United States is in a precarious situation because increasingly we no longer agree on the ground rules for political combat.  We have had our radical politics before, such as during the Great Depression.  But even then, and for over 200 years, there was a consensus on the political ground rules – that the Constitution rules (although there has long been disagreement on its application).  Oh sure, Democrats and the Deep State Establishment have tried, with too much success, to get around the Constitution.  But few have openly suggested trashing it altogether.

But now Beto the Boy Wonder has openly questioned whether the Constitution should rule today:

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke recently questioned the modern-day relevance of the U.S. Constitution and whether the country should still be governed by “the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago.”

“I think that’s the question of the moment: Does this still work?” Mr. O’Rourke asked during a taped conversation with two friends, which he aired to thousands in response to President Trump’s Oval Office address to the American people about the border wall, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

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“Can an empire like ours with military presence in over 170 countries around the globe, with trading relationships … and security agreements in every continent, can it still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago?” Mr. O’Rourke reportedly asked.

And it is fair to say Beto is in the mainstream of the Democrat Party today and is popular to boot.  Heck, he gave Ted Cruz a good run in Texas.

Disregard for the Constitution is usually not so openly expressed even in the Democrat Party.  At least not yet.  But by their actions, Democrats have long showed they really do not care much for the Constitution and its principles.  Rampant attacks on free speech are only one example of this disregard.

Whatever one thinks of the Constitution (I am a adamant advocate of it.), it is dangerous for what is now the mainstream of a major party to have such disregard for the basic ground rules of political combat in any country.

Allow me to use American football to illustrate.  Football has a number of complicated rules. The purpose of many of these is to keep the players from maiming each other and worse.  Yes, the players try to get around the rules, but there is agreement that the rules are the rules.  And there is today a player culture that frowns on breaking the rules in order to injure another.  Rules can and do get changed – amended if you will – but they are respected during a game even when broken.

What can happen if the rules are disregarded by the authorities or applied with an obvious double standard (or there is at least the widespread perception thereof)?  Well, you get the Bengals-Steelers game of January 2016.  It. Was. Ugly.

We already have a Bengals-Steelers situation in this country.  In the political realm at least, roughly a third of this country has utter contempt for roughly another third and visa versa.  That has certainly happened before. (And, yes, we did have our Civil War.) But what if, in addition, the rules, the Constitution, gets tossed aside?  What if there is not even agreement on the political ground rules of the Constitution anymore?  Well, increasingly there is not.

And we are therefore in great danger of political combat getting out of hand even into widespread violence as Ace has warned:  

…If you attempt to ditch the Constitution and keep actual Americans enslaved under a no-longer-American government, expect violence.

Because that's straight-up tyranny.

That may sound alarmist.  But what keeps us from each others’ throats most of the time is agreed upon rules of political engagement.  If one side arbitrarily tosses the rules, why should the other side still be nice and obey the rules?

Now probably the other side should still obey the rules, but try explaining that to them.  If a large segment of the population feels their lives and liberty are under threat by tyrants who disregard both and disregard the Constitutional rule of law, we are at great risk of violence and worse.

Trust me that I hope I am being alarmist.  I certainly hope and pray that the tyrannical segment of the population and the totalitarians they are electing are so utterly and repeatedly defeated in coming elections that they will find better things to do than attacking our Constitutional freedoms and the Constitutional rule of law.  I think that the only good and relatively peaceful way out of our current situation.  But given the cyclical nature of politics, I am not optimistic.

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NOTE:  Ace sees a “national divorce” of the United States splitting up as the best way out.  I understand that, but disagree for now and don’t see that happening.  I do agree with him that the current situation is that bad.