Civil servant disobedience

What does civil disobedience look like in someone that believes in the rule of law under the US Constitution? Kim Davis is apparently one of the very few people from any part of the ideological spectrum that knows the answer to that question. It looks a lot like her.

Most conservatives bemoan the ubiquitous spinelessness of elected officials that refuse to take seriously their oath of office. The oath that universally includes a commitment to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. The oath that is violated daily by elected officials at every level of government - and by appointed judges. Yet the moment a county clerk attempts to resist a clear act of judicial tyranny many of those same conservatives immediately call for her resignation. As a defense of the Constitution resignation would not occur to me.

Conservatives have somehow become conditioned to see honor in surrender. Resign, quit, recuse, shush. We'll look so noble. In my wayward youth I found my way into a few fights. Fights are always messy things. If something, like the soul of our nation, is worth fighting for, then it's worth getting messy for. It's been said that the left fights dirty while the right insists on using the Marquess of Queensberry rules. That actually would be great. It's more like the left fights dirty and the right dives out of the ring when the round starts. It's difficult to defend a Constitution that way. Resigning your office in the face of judicial tyranny is a violation of the oath of office. It's not a defense of the Constitution or anything else. It is in fact willfully allowing the destruction of the thing you swore an oath to uphold and defend. It's cowardice. Demanding that someone else cower in resignation, fearing someone else's boldness, is an even greater cowardice.

While it is possible to lose our country honorably, there is nothing intrinsically honorable about losing. While we are certainly in the process of losing our country, we are not doing it honorably. The oath of office is not a political Hippocratic oath. It's not a promise simply to personally do no harm to the Constitution. That is what is being suggested by the well meaning french republicans demanding the resignation of Kim Davis. The oath of office is a commitment to action in the face of abuse of the Constitution. The oath conveys to the sincere oath taker both a duty and a risk. Absent either one of these the oath is meaningless.

If a significant number of oath takers were sincere in taking that oath, judicial tyranny could not exist. Lawless administrations would not exist. Congress would work as envisioned by the founders. Unfortunately, most oath takers are not sincere. Since most of them do not take the duty seriously, the risk is increased for those who do. When fulfilling your oath becomes civil disobedience it may have consequences, but that doesn't make it wrong. In fact, it's a pretty good indication that it's necessary.

In a facebook discussion this morning someone made an interesting mix of metaphors to say that supporting Davis was to make a mountain out of a molehill to die on; implying that we should surrender this battle and wait for something bigger. And this is how we're losing the nation - a molehill at a time - through chronic surrender. It's time to stop resigning, quitting, recusing, shushing. If we can't rely on each other to charge up a molehill, we're kidding ourselves about the mountains. When Thomas Jefferson said a little rebellion is a good thing, he was talking about the molehills. We're way overdue for some rebellion.

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical" ~ Thomas Jefferson