I feel like I woke up in a new country this morning. A third-world country where people either live with some level of despair about their limited options for a full and happy life or they dream of escaping to a place where hope resides. My despair is tempered by the dream that someday my grandchildren or their children might experience a place where the government, imperfect as it may be, holds in high regard the idea of an intrinsic right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This dream is measurably more difficult to deal with because it's one that my family and I have lived. A reality that is now relegated to the world of fantasy. A world where ideas live; ideas void of expression. As our president has promised, the hundred-year journey of fundamentally transforming our great nation is now complete; (at least one politician knows how to keep a promise). A nation once characterized by the rule of law and an adherence to a Constitution that represented man's best effort, in all of history, to provide an equitable and effective method of governance. Now, however, its highest court, its most powerful leaders, whose powers have long since been elevated far above the original intent of our founders, have shown utter contempt for the rule of law and the people it is there to protect. Our supreme court looks like a bunch of Middle Schoolers role-playing in a civics class. The majority opinion on the last several cases sound more like a child nonsensically defending their unruly behavior. What an embarrassment.
So, I am left to dream of some future time when this country will be transformed back into a place where all men are recognized as being equal and we are free to live, pursue happiness, (as defined by the citizen, not the government), and to live free. At least that transformation won't require the destruction of our foundational principles.
