Make no doubt about it: officials will go to jail if they refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The saga of Rowan County, Ky. clerk Kim Davis took a turn for a prison cell after a federal judge threw the book at Davis for turning away gay couples wanting to get married.
Naturally, Davis’s tribulation has become the latest and fiercest battle in America’s culture war. Her supporters say she’s practicing civil disobedience against an unjust Supreme Court ruling. Her detractors say she is undermining the rule of law and deserves jail time. (RELATED: Kentucky Clerk Appeals Release From Jail, STILL Refuses To Give In To Judge’s Demands To Issue Gay Marriage Licenses)
Oddly enough, the anti-Davis faction includes plenty of folks from the right as well as the unified consensus of the left. However, the Kentucky clerk’s conservative critics — which includes the judge who sentenced her to jail — don’t view her as a demonic bigot like her liberal foes. They simply see her act as a grave legal offense.
Conservatives cherish the rule of law, and rightly so. If no one respects the law, society will breakdown and anarchy will reign. In the eyes of those on the right, Davis must be punished for the sake of our social order.
Fair enough. Unfortunately though, we live in a society where its rules are regularly disregarded by those in power and by those on the left. Interestingly enough, those are the same folks who are the most enthusiastic supporters of throwing the Kentucky clerk in jail.
The same liberals who cheer on illegal immigrants, felons and rioters have suddenly found their inner appreciation for the law and demand the state punish Kim Davis to the fullest extent. The unbridled glee that accompanied Davis’s arrest revealed the left loves enforcing the law — when it punishes their ideological opponents.
However, when the rule of law goes against sanctuary cities and other “noble” causes, the left occupies the high moral ground and says they are practicing civil disobedience in refusing to enforce the unjust laws of the federal government.
Hypocrisy is too weak of a term to describe the left’s support of Davis’s prosecution.
Nobody has died because Kim Davis told a gay couple she won’t give them a marriage license. People die because sanctuary cities refuse to abide by federal law. Taxpayers also have to foot the bill for the services and benefits illegally obtained by those sheltered in these disobedient cities. The only real cost to taxpayers in l’affaire Davis is her prison stay.
The left also doesn’t seem too concerned with Hillary Clinton’s clear violation of federal law concerning emails — even though that “oversight” could have jeopardized national security. But don’t expect Hillary to face the same consequences as the lowly rural Kentucky clerk.
However, the Democratic presidential frontrunner does have the audacity to approve the arrest and detention of Kim Davis as she offers condescending explanations for why the law need not apply to herself. (RELATED: Hillary Says She Will Not Apologize For Using Private Email Server)
It’s abundantly clear that the left has no concern for the rule of law. They want to see Davis in jail to send a message to those last hold outs in the culture war: “We control the state, and we will use it against you.”
The whole ordeal was engineered to prove this point. The denied couple came to make an example out of the Rowan County clerk, knowing full-well they’d get the enthusiastic support of the legal system and national media.
Conservatives should understand then that the Davis saga is not about upholding the rule of law. It’s a mop-up operation against those resisting America’s cultural transformation.
If we lived in a society where all of our laws were respected, it would be right to throw this one official in jail. But when the highest officials in our country flout immigration law and national security protections, why should we be outraged when a Rowan County clerk decides not to do a small part of her job due to her conscience?
President Obama’s executive amnesty, Hillary Clinton’s email shenanigans and sanctuary cities actually jeopardize the security of America. Kim Davis’s defiance doesn’t.
When our ruling class feels no need to respect the rule of law when it suits their interests, we shouldn’t be shocked when a minor official does the same thing. The conservative judge who imprisoned Davis is upholding the will of the left more than he is upholding the law.
If we imprisoned the mayors of sanctuary cities and Hillary Clinton, then it make sense to crack down on this one county clerk. But we don’t.
However, jail time is doing more for Davis’s cause than any other possible act. She could’ve remained a recalcitrant bureaucrat in the public view’s, but now she’s a martyr for the cause of religious liberty. All thanks to the uncompromising zealotry that defines modern-day progressives and the witless obedience that defines modern-day conservatives.
Some may say the true act of civil disobedience for Davis would’ve been to resign. That would’ve only been a gift to same-sex marriage supporters and would constitute grudging acceptance for the new law of the land. By not resigning, she has forced the issue out in the public square which would’ve never happened if she quit her job quietly.
It is true that if we want the rule of law to, well, rule, Davis should sign off on papers recognizing the marriages of same-sex couples or go to jail. But, in that case, the mayors of sanctuary cities and Hillary Clinton should go to prison as well.
Otherwise, we’re just enshrining leftist hypocrisy into our legal code.
