The rule of street law

Ask the average person about the rule of law and they might say--there's the way everyone wants the world to work, then there's the way it actually works. Many believe that everything boils down to a "law of the jungle" where the strongest, smartest, or most ruthless capture the spoils leaving the rest to suffer or complain.

I bring this up because we've got another scandal in Memphis involving a Ford. This time it's Edmund Ford, a City Councilman (yes he's related to Harold Ford, Jr.) who's been accused of accepting cash payments allegedly in exchange for votes. The payments were caught on FBI surveillance cameras so there's no denying the money was passed. Instead Mr. Ford is saying they were "loans".

Every mother's son or daughter will eventually be faced with temptation, but character is defined in how such events are handled. Whether fair or not, the perception remains that most elected officials are handicapped in that area.

Others say it's just survival in the mean ole world, no big deal. Getting by is a daily grind for most of the world's population not blessed with an American system whose purpose was to subvert jungle law and allow the little guy an opportunity to reach a dream. And it's been wildly successful--nobody starves to death here unless they are devoid of all sense, and many paupers rise to become millionaires without possessing the ruthless guile of a dictator. You can thank a devotion to the rule of law for that.

Enter greed.

Greed destroys people regardless of society. Even if Mr. Ford is telling the truth about the money being a "loan", his excuse for getting the "loan" was:

Ford said the tape shows nothing more than him taking a loan from Cooper so that he could catch up on financial obligations, including making payments on a Cadillac sport utility vehicle he leases.

The Commercial Appeal first reported last year that Cooper, then a salesman at Bud Davis Cadillac, arranged for Ford to lease the car, a $50,000 Cadillac SRX. Because of bad credit, Ford couldn't qualify for the car, so millionaire developer Rusty Hyneman co-signed the lease.

In other words, Mr. Ford has already failed the ethics test. A person with bad credit, regardless of position, should not be leasing a Cadillac SUV. It sure ain't because he was just 'trying to get by'. Pride, greed, status, or influence peddling are the only viable explanations.

While this isn't a racial thing Mr. Ford will no doubt use that canard for his defense. Many in his constituency will believe the FBI is unfairly targeting black politicians when white politicians are just as corrupt. Whether true or not, the rule of law is never defended by using this defense.

This same law of the streets argument also works well for the illegal alien issue. As long as people are willing to work it's seen as perfectly acceptable to break immigration law on a massive scale. Problem is, as the Founding Fathers warned, at some point societies who devalue the law end up eventually having it enforced on them by one person.