As we age we all look around with that sense of “When I was young this crap would’ve never flown!” wonder as things change, usually for the worse (or so we think). Normally, however, we can look at things as they change and understand who is benefitting from them, if nothing else. But there are changes happening now that not only will make things significantly worse, but there is not obvious an constituency for them. Worse still, they will accelerate the unraveling of the Civil Society.
There are laws on the books, then there are the unwritten laws we all live by. The unwritten laws are the societal pressures and agreements we make with one another to make life better but can’t and shouldn’t be imposed by government. Don’t put a car on blocks on your front lawn or you won’t get invited to neighborhood BBQs, etc. Our society functions as much from adherence to the unwritten laws as we do from those written. Now it’s all going to hell.
What am I talking about? First, we have the breakdown of laws the people we’ve elected to implement laws have passed into being. These laws didn’t breakdown on their own, simply having outlived their usefulness, no. These laws are being ignored by people elected to enforce them.
Prosecutors across the country have one job: to enforce the laws passed by elected politicians. They have zero say on what is or isn’t a law, that’s expressly not the job of a prosecutor. They do have “prosecutorial discretion,” with is the ability to choose not to pursue action against someone due to extraordinary circumstance – they mythical mom stealing a loaf of bread to feed her starving kids.
That has now been bastardized to the point that entire classes of crimes – crimes we want prosecuted as evidenced by the fact that we elected the people that made them crimes and they haven’t been revoked through that legislative process – are simply declared not to be crimes anymore. The people with the job to hold people accountable for breaking laws won’t hold people accountable for breaking some laws (laws they don’t like, like prostitution and drugs…makes you think, doesn’t it?) even though they are still on the books and no effort has been made to wipe them off it.
It’s not the job of a prosecutor to defacto declare something illegal to be legal, it’s the exact opposite of their job, but these progressives, funded to the tune of millions of dollars by George Soros, are doing just that. I bet you the private property laws where Soros lives are still enforced…
So if you don’t like seeing prostitutes near where your kids play, servicing “customers” in the bushes of playgrounds, thank a Democrat.
But you can thank everyone else for the rest of the problem.
On a recent trip back to Detroit to visit family, I was inundated with television commercials for online gambling. I live in Maryland now, and sports betting just became legal before Thanksgiving. You can’t watch a sporting event or anything, really, without being hammered with ads with some multimillionaire celebrity encouraging you to download the sportsbook app paying them a fortune to bet on every aspect of any game you can think of. Personally, I think it’s wildly stupid and destructive, and will cause a lot of people to go broke. But whatever, it’s your money to set on fire however you wish.
That being said, in Michigan they’ve had sportsbooks for a while, and now they’ve moved on. Not only can you bet sports from your phone, the ads all over the place there are for casino apps and the gambling you can do in the palm of your hand. That’s right, you can play slots, blackjack, roulette, etc., right on your phone. Again, I have to ask: who does this help?
The answer politicians always give in matters like this is “the children.” “Funding will help schools,” they always say. With the amount of money being spent on schools you’d think we’d have the smartest kids on the planet. We decidedly do not. So who is really benefitting?
The politicians who promise to help the kids are the ones who benefit the most. They dumb this new pile of money in the “school funding” bucket, then redirect other school money toward other things. Ultimately, they have more money to toss at their donors and supporters while people go broke chasing a quick, easy buck.
I’m not sure how they live with themselves, other than they must be soulless people. And this isn’t even to mention the legalization and/or decriminalization of drugs, which you see signs for all over Michigan.
It’s the bipartisan destruction of the Civil Society in the name of helping children. It’s gross.
As we move toward our nation’s 250th birthday, what used to only be able to be done in Las Vegas or Atlantic City is now available everywhere. Actually, we’re worse than that. Get a hooker, get high, bet the mortgage on a game or on red – live it up. The drugs and hookers, with rare exceptions, weren’t legal in LV or AC.
Would you say society has improved? Are schools better? Is anything better? Have you ever had the thought, “Man, I wish I had more time to waste money at a casino but I simply can’t get there. Why can’t I gamble on my phone?” Probably not, but if you have you should likely seek help for a gambling addiction.
So who is benefiting from it? Someone is getting rich and it sure as hell isn’t you or the kids.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
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