If the president isn't obliged to obey the law, why should I be?

[anarch]

Oh yeah...it's because men with guns will take me away and lock me up if I don't. x(

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. Kind of ironic...

that the same Republicans who claimed that Clinton was responsible for every child post-1998 that had oral sex, because he was the president and therefore should set a positive example. Those same people are eerily quiet when it comes to their own guy breaking ACTUAL laws. Wonder how many pundits will blame an increase in crime on our criminal president. I'm guessing none because you can only use sensational red herring arguments against people that have a "D" following their name

[Love Bug]

2. Maybe that should be our meme: "What about the chillllllldren?"

[Ohio Joe]

3. For me personally

It's because no matter how I look at it, two wrongs do not make a right.

[anarch]

5. that's a good point

And I'm mostly just bemoaning the fact that there seems to be no justice, and that privilege continues to trump the theoretical egalitarian foundations of our society.

Now that I think about it, though, it brings me back to a good philosophical question: Do we have a prima facie duty to obey the law?

What about stupid laws? Like legislation of morality and such? What about speed limits?

[Ohio Joe]

6. Well...

I try to follow my conscience. Sometimes a law needs to be broken in order to get it changed to what it should be (peacefully, non-violently), in this case I see it as a right correcting a wrong. However to commit a wrong just because someone else did does not seem correct to me. Unfortunately, not all laws are right and I expect it is near imposable to make it so since there are always exceptions.

[anarch]

7. I'll count that in the "no" column

:)

I think most reasonable people feel pretty much like you do. So we obey the law out of moral obligation, not because it's the law.

[pitohui]

4. because it's good to be the king

it's the way the world works, the law is only for the little people, has been for almost all of human history so if nothing else we can say we have shared the common experience rather than living in a unique bubble out of time

nixon being toppled because of he broke the law -- and he still wasn't prosecuted mind -- was a unique act of democracy that won't occur again in our lifetimes methinks

we can and should strive for equality and rule of law applying to all but actually expecting it to happen when the odds are so strongly against is just setting up for heartbreak

there is no justice in this world

try anyway