Criminal prosecutions as one-way warfare

Re the evil thing that has been done to Lewis Libby, here is an impressive catalog of Republicans who have been prosecuted, and Democrats who have gotten off scot free, by Ann Coulter. “Criminal prosecution is a surrogate for political warfare,” she concludes, “but in this war, Republicans are gutless appeasers.”

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Ben W. writes:

Given the way some legal trials have gone these days, and why they were conducted in the first place, reminds me of the following.

In 1965 a book was published that enjoyed some popularity among the leftist young (today’s liberal?).

It was entitled “A Critique of Pure Tolerance,” by Robert Wolff, Barringtom Moore Jr. and Herbert Marcuse. One of the more influential essays in that compendium is “Repressive Tolerance” in which Marcuse states that tolerance should not to be accorded to repressive, right-wing reactionaries but only extended to progressive, left-wing spokesmen. If necessary the “natural right of oppressed and overpowered minorities to use extralegal means” may be invoked.

And of course we have this phenomenon today.

“Intelligent Design” advocates are excluded from publication in scientific journals by evolution-only editors. University professors present only one side of cultural and political discourse in classes. Public prosecuters (e.g. the Duke lacrosse case) lend credence to only one side of the story. Tolerance is a one-way street today.

Notice how Marcuse asserts that “minorities” may excusably use “extra-legal” means—and today’s liberal offers just such an excuse for the crime of the “disadvantaged.” But as Ann Coulter shows in her latest article, Democrats get away with crime passed over by the legal system but not Republicans (the jury even wondered where the crime was in the Libby case in spite of their verdict). The American legal structure (from the municipal court all the way up to the Supreme Court) has now been redefined as an exercise in “rectification” of the “disadvantage minority”. The legal system has become a political tool that finds its justification in “repressive tolerance” from the 60’s to our day.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 07, 2007 11:57 PM | Send