Let’s Dust Off the Dust Up
Last week, the Czar took the position that the Kim Davis story, while interesting, featured some big mistakes by both sides. This prompted The One—no, not that One, the one in Nebraska—to write in.
| Dearest Czarczar, I agree with you mostly about the Kentucky dustup. What other choice would I have? Nevertheless, I have a little nuance for you on the issue. The leftstream has made a habit of using the government as a springboard to promote its sharia correctness culture. We have to stop enabling them. As consumers we have gotten used to business using diplomacy and flexibility as a way to improve its relationship with its customer base. We should expect no less from our government overlords. For some people, gay marriage matters. Kentucky dramatically changed Davis’s job description when gay marriage becomes mandatory. North Carolina managed the switchover without putting anyone in jail, and as far I now, has left no gay unmarried. At least consenting couples that is. There have to have been all sorts of work arounds that would allow everyone to switch over to the regime without providing propaganda fodder for either side of the debate. Or using up jail space that should be set aside for the BLM crowd. I think it is only humane and reasonable to offer accommodations for this sort of thing in the short-run. They won the war, allow some period of time to win the peace. And if they aren’t able to show a little flexibility, I think it reveals that we are hiring the wrong people to run our bureaucracies. Yeah, in the long run we can’t allow government officials to not perform their legal obligations. But there was nothing about this situation that screamed emergency. affectionately thine, theoneinNebraska |
Thanks, and the Czar presumes we’re basically in agreement. Some other interesting tidbits have popped out of the oven since posting.
First, Eugene Volokh wrote a piece almost simultaneously about the legalities of Ms. Davis’ actions, and the Czar was surprised to learn that Kentucky law kind of allows her to do what she did. That changes things somewhat, but ultimately the Czar agrees with The Conspiracy that fundamentally, she swore to uphold the law and chose not to. However, they also argue, most interestingly, that a better legal strategy for her would be objecting to having her name on the license. That implies endorsement, and she would have had a much stronger case if she refused to offer licenses with her name all over them. Ms. Davis could well have submitted a workaround for that for a win-win.
Second, you brought up a great psychological point about modern American liberalism that—to be fair—has been brought up before in this context. And that’s the Liberal insistence that we all can suck it. It’s not enough—indeed, it’s never enough—to have won the war: every last member of the former opposition must be rounded up and driven out of society. In fact, the closer the vote was to 50-50, the stronger the demand that anyone who voted against the pet Liberal cause of the month must be destroyed: economically, socially, professionally, and if necessary, physically. Ms. Davis can’t simply be wrong about same-sex marriage: she must be sent to jail in front of her family. The world would change immediately if the modern American liberal ever realized that life exists beyond the next five minutes, and that they have set a precedent for how they wish to be treated when the conservative pendulum continues on its swing back. And it is swinging back, folks—don’t let Twitter and Facebook scare you.
Third, let the world know that the Czar is quite sympathetic to Ms. Davis. Her religious interpretation insists that same-sex marriage is morally offensive to her faith, and she wants no part of it. Being jailed as a conscientious objector is dangerously close to being imprisoned because she worships the wrong religion. Imagine a doctor being jailed because she refuses to perform an abortion: the analogy is stronger than most liberals would like to admit.
Or imagine the flip side of this, liberals. Imagine a liberal being put in jail because he refuses to attend a gun safety demonstration at his kid’s school… you know, in some alternate universe where there’s a Republican president and Congress like we had in 2004. Of course, a lot of liberals would swear up and down that America was like this in 2004, but of course that’s pure fantasy: liberals have never lived in the American hellhole they pretend they do. But if that example sounds like an exaggeration, it really isn’t too far off the mark for a lot of religious Americans. And again, make no mistake there, Twitterers and Facebookies: Americans are a deeply religious people.
The Czar acknowledges we live in an interesting time, but agrees with a few folks who have pointed out that an increasing number of things seem to be simultaneously compulsory and prohibited. Ms. Davis is sure to agree.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.