Civil disobedience is a political act. It may be nonviolent or violent. We may greet it with approval; we may condemn it. Civil disobedience remains a political act.
When Gandhi led Indians to the sea to protest the British salt monopoly, he committed an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, an act that many Americans would approve. When George Washington led the Continental Army against the British, he committed an act of civil disobedience, an act of violent civil disobedience that most Americans also endorse. The attacks of the Iraqi resistance against our Army of Occupation in Iraq are equally acts of violent civil disobedience, acts directed against our fellow Americans.
Peaceful or violent, approved or disapproved, acts of civil disobedience are extraordinary political acts. For better or worse, acts of civil disobedience have the intent of causing political change.
The opposite of Civil Disobedience is Civil Disobedience by Government. We have Civil Disobedience by Government when the Government chooses to violate the law. The third world army that stages its weekly installation of the President for Life du jour commits Civil Disobedience by Government.
Acts of Civil Disobedience by the Bush Republican Party dominate American politics. When George Bush issues one of his antiConstitutional signing statements, he commits nonviolent Civil Disobedience by Government.
The Bush Republican Party also commits acts of violent Civil Disobedience by Government. American law forbids Americans to kidnap and torture foreigners. "Extraordinary rendition" and torture unto death, when committed by Americans, are felonies. Their commission by the Bush Republican Party is Civil Disobedience by Government.
Electronic warfare is, above all, a form of warfare. When the Bush Republican Party leads the government to create warrantless wiretaps against the telephones of millions of Americans, it is levying war against the United States, the United States in the persons of millions of our fellow Americans. These violations of our Bill of Rights and the supporting civil rights laws are examples of violent Civil Disobedience by Government.
Other examples of Civil Disobedience by Government are readily found. The recent back and forth between Steve Kubby and Mendocino County government, in which Mendocino County government has perhaps been persuaded to stop violating its own laws about medical marijuana, comes to mind as a case in which Civil Disobedience by Government has been brought to an end.
Writing on Lew Rockwell's web site Vin Suprynowicz asks "Why Are Immigration Laws the Only Ones They Won’t Enforce?" Suprynowicz and I are substantially similar in our positions on borders, which I would phrase 'so long as we have an open welfare system, we cannot have open borders without going broke' and he phrases 'If we got rid of all the welfare programs, I would indeed favor open immigration.' Suprynowicz writes that he "pretty much favors abandoning all unenforceable laws" but adds "What strikes me odd is that these politicians only seem to want to abandon this ONE (supposedly) unenforceable law."
However, the key issue on open vs. closed borders not whether borders should be open or closed. The main issue is that Civil Disobedience by Government renders the debate totally meaningless. It does not matter what our immigration laws are, because the Democratic and Republican parties refuse to enforce them. No matter whether the laws say the borders are opened or closed, if the government flouts the laws the law becomes meaningless. The American people understand this very clearly: They want the lawmaking process to yield real laws.This failure of government is not Civil Disobedience. Civil disobedience is a political act. It is an extraordinary act: If it became ordinary, politics would become impossible. Nonetheless, civil disobedience remains a political act.
In contrast, Civil Disobedience by Government is the opposite of a political act. Civil Disobedience by Government is your government at war with legitimate politics. Civil Disobedience by Government is the ultimate subversive crime: It is the act that makes ordinary politics impossible.
As Libertarians, we should condemn Civil Disobedience by Government. Civil Disobedience by Government means that there is no point in doing politics, because the political process is rendered meaningless. Civil Disobedience by Government means that your Constitutional protections are meaningless, because they are ignored.
The Federal employees who assert a Presidential power to ignore the Constitution are dangerous subversives, who are hard at work trying to destroy America. The Federal employees and their private corporate co-conspirators who are systematically violating our Constitution and Bill of Rights are levying war on the United States. Our national security agencies need to be systematically cleansed, the unpatriotic people who violate our Bill of Rights being replaced with patriotic Americans (perhaps considerably fewer in number than the people they are replacing) who love our country.
The United States needs a corps of special prosecutors to see that the extensive crimes committed by the Bush Administration and its predecessors are brought to an end, and the people who committed them are brought to justice. Judges and juries, the judges and juries so long denied Jose Padilla, should decide their fates.
