Sunday, November 14, 2010

As many Americans know, Oklahoma banned Sharia law from being considered by state courts. Why was this important? It wasn’t, not as a real issue. There is no likelihood of Sharia being a part of the state court system. The action was taken by demagogues in the state legislature who wanted to distract tier constituency from their failures and to benefit form the fears and confusion of the electorate.
Doing good work and passing good laws is hard. Playing on fears and baseless panics is easy. I’m surprised the legislators didn’t also attempt to ban Kilingon law. It’s so much harsher that Sharia and as likely to ever be a part of the state court system.
The founding fathers attempted to create a balance between the outrages of Athenian democracy [see Alcibiades and the Syracuse expedition] and the suppression of the people under the Roman Republic. That’s why junior high school civics students learn that the US is a democratic republic. Its supposed to be a careful construction of the benefits of both systems without the inherent failures of each. Actually, it works pretty well, considering that its a wholly human effort. We do surprising well when compared to the rest of history.
Right now everyone is confused and frightened. Therefore we tend strongly to seek someone to blame. Someone who is not us. That’s important. Obviously we can’t be responsible for our own troubles. It must be a plot.
American voters hate politics and largely ignore it. Then they are surprised when politicians use their power to do bad things. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but somehow, it always is.