Before election consider both parties’ record on rule of law
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Will our choices from the next general election represent honesty, or corruption? Be obedient to oaths, or not? Show respect for, or blindness to law? Have past winners gone on to vote the people’s will, or did they bend to party pressures? How obedient are they to the powers that run the machine?
Not content with “The News” versions, I surveyed web sources to compare the parties’ respect for law. Quora, Rantt Media, Wikipedia, Daily Kos, Huffpost, USA Today, and Time all tallied lawlessness in administrations over 48- to 55-year spans. Though researchers’ details differed, their numbers were similar when comparing indictments, convictions and imprisonments of party officeholders and staffers.
Rantt Media studied administrations from 1961 to 2016 to show Democrats earning seven indictments, three convictions, and one imprisonment against the Republicans’ 126 indictments, 113 convictions, and 39 imprisonments.
Politifact’s 53-year study got different results from the same data: They listed three indictments, one conviction, and one imprisonment for Democrats against 120 indictments, 89 convictions, and 34 imprisonments for Republicans. Oddly, The Daily Kos identical results gave the GOP four more years than the Dems to do mischief.
The liberal Huffington Post reported Republican administrations earning 91 times the conviction rates of Democrats across a similar timespan. None of the studies included the yet-to-be-tallied record of the Trump administration.
The difference between the parties’ respect for oaths of office and law is clear, the numbers depicting a culture where rules aren’t enforced, party ambitions displace national interests, and moneyed interests write legislation. The effects are clear: Crass behavior among leaders perpetuates dysfunction in government, leaders’ lawless behaviors echo across the land, and the patriotic pride that united us in times of crisis is eroded.
Hold this thought when marking ballots.
Robert Graef
Mill Creek
