Lessons Unlearned

As usual Spocko has a wonderful reflection on the lesson we have learned from history by the criminal characters in this administration. Also as usual, it is masterfully tongue in cheek. I am going to give you readers a small sample of his whole post, recommend you read the whole thing. The subject is letting the crimes of this White House go unpunished.

To attack them now, after we have won, isn't helpful. Why?

Because people learn from their mistakes when they are forgiven and then they stop making them. They don't think that being lenient is a bad thing, especially when it comes to their own "crime" (which many don't even see as a crime). We only need to look at Scooter Libby to see how communing his sentence made him a better citizen who surely won't do something questionable again. His life is over in the public sphere. I don't ever expect him to be out making money by being on TV, writing a book or bragging about his "crime" in speeches to supporters. He knows that would be wrong.

History has shown that when you don't punish people for making a mistake or breaking the law they never make that mistake again. They may know technically that they "got away with it", but morally they realize that they were wrong and understand that the compassion shown comes with the suggestion, "Go and sin no more."

Learn From Ford. Pardon people, it's Good for the Country

Remember after Nixon? We chose to not go after a few people who broke the law. That was the right thing to do because we found out that when you forgive people for their law breaking they leave the public eye, they learn their lesson and never act like that again. I think that Rummy and Cheney are the best example of people who learned from the Nixon Administration the most. They are a prime example of why we shouldn't follow up on people who have done bad things (especially when people did those things thinking they were doing what was right for the country.) Nixon was pardoned and that sent a clear message to Rummy and Cheney not to do what Nixon did. And they didn't! Cheney and Rummy never taped themselves and they never ordered the break in of the Democratic headquarters. The pardon worked.

The mistakes made in allowing criminals who misused public office has resulted in disasters we will be climbing back out of, if we do, for some time to come. Reading Spocko is a treat, but a lesson too, that we must not let this pass.

The maladministration that signaled its intentions by keeping the U.S. out of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court should be subject to law, and we cannot avoid that responsibility. It doesn't work out well.