The Law

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There is much consternation among my friends and former colleagues in the Air Force.  We cannot fathom how the investigation into Ms. Clinton’s private e-mail system does not rise to the level of prosecution.  We who have had TS/SCI level clearances know the penalties for mishandling the most sensitive of our governments secrets.  Many of us are acquainted with people who’ve lost their clearances and faced both discipline and criminal prosecution for violations far less egregious than that of Ms. Clinton.  She, and her personal assistants, purposely set out to circumvent the freedom of information act and its unwanted requests for information by not using the government system. 

On the other side Ms. Clinton’s supporters remain convinced she is a fearless advocate, a truthful individual, and a superb human being who embodies their ideals for the future.  A strong woman who made a minor mistake and the FBI found the only reasonable answer for such an embarrassing oversight on Ms. Clinton and her personal staff’s part. 

Fundamentally we are again talking past each other.  We in the 2% who have served to defend the nation, have a code that is becoming more abstract from the morality of the other 97% who occupy this country, and the 1% who run it. 

As we have seen with this Administration, everything is secondary to its political agenda, and the leadership will wield the entire force of government to support that goal.  It doesn’t matter if it is on climate change and the administrations push to criminalize the opposition, the deflection of the discussion of radical Islamic terrorism to an anti-gun message, the targeting of the Tea Party by the IRS, support for the BLM movement against the police, or the push for total acceptance of the LGBT life.  This administration has actively pursued the centralization of power into the hands of the President.  Those who agree with the Administration, and there are many, believe that a “right thinking” administration with unlimited power will protect America and better fix the all the problems.  To do this they will willingly sacrifice their personal freedoms.

What this FBI investigation, findings, and recommendation did was undermine the very thing this country was based on, the idea we are all equal in the eyes of the law.  There will be those who say Mr. Comey’s report undercut the claims Ms. Clinton has made about being the more responsible candidate, but it will now become the job of the DNC and RNC to put the “proper” spin on the facts.  Is that how the law is supposed to work now?

I am afraid for the average middle-class white American the trust in the fairness of the legal system will now begin to sink to the levels of the minority communities who have long-standing reason not to trust it.  At the end of the day, it will undermine every judicial decision on prosecution and may in fact be the event our historians point to that began the movement away from our current constitution to whatever will follow.  As a friend pointed out the SCOTUS decision in United States v Richard Nixon showed no one, not even the President, is above the law.  What the FBI investigation reconfirms is the inequality in application of the law by our federal law enforcement agencies is real and increasing. (updated for minor edits)