Papers, Please

One of the divine blessings of the American system of government is the principle of divided sovereignty. The United States of America was the first modern nation to practice this principle.

Sovereignty is a fancy word for authority. The United States have divided sovereignty in the sense that each state has a unique and separate authority.

Before the American Revolution, there was no such thing as divided sovereignty in Western Civilization. In each nation, sovereignty was unitary and indivisible, vested more often than not in a single human being, called the king, or the kaiser, or the czar, etc.

But in the United States, the sovereignty was divided. There was no one single head of a snake to cut off. The federal government had power, but so did each and every state. This is still true, although the balance of power has slid dramatically towards the federals at the expense of the states.

But still, each state has its own sovereignty, its own prerogative to experiment with different approaches towards governance. For example, Massachusetts chose to impose a health insurance mandate.

The genius of the American system is that when Massachusetts decided to do this, the principle of divided sovereignty, or states' rights, allowed it to carry out its own experiment.

The other states were therefore free to observe. If it worked, other states were free to copy. If it failed terribly, that failure was contained to one state.

This is all well and good. But what about when states use their sovereignty to desecrate the creed of the nation? Arizona this week passed the most immoral and unGodly and unAmerican measure I have witnessed in my short and salty life.

The governor of Arizona signed a bill passed by the legislature of that state that mandates that police officers must stop any person who looks like an illegal immigrant and demand proof of their status.

It goes without saying that the target of this moral dysentery is not Canadian immigrants; we all know who the "suspects" are in this equation. The Mexicans. They will be punished for living in the land that the United States took by war of aggression against Mexico 150 years ago.

How many ways is this wrong? Morally. Ethically. Economically. Common Sense-ically. Biblically. Legally. Constitutionally.

Here's an example of what society would look like if this law were actually manifested: Every single time a person who "looked like an illegal immigrant" was robbed, raped, or murdered, victims and witnesses would not call the police, because they would be asked for their papers when reporting the crime.

So, notice to all serial criminals in the U.S.: Go to Arizona, and prey on Mexicanish people; they're fair game.

Also, notice to all international drug cartels: there are now millions of unprotected people in the U.S., so feel free to extort them, to kidnap their children, to rape their wives. Go ahead, because they can't call the cops, can they?

Likewise, any "illegal" who witnessed a crime would not testify in court, because after he gave his testimony, he would be arrested for being illegal.

This is a law that willfully places millions of people outside the law. They are criminals by virtue of their appearance. Not even during the deepest dregs of racism did we ever pass laws demanding that black people show their papers.

Of course most cops in the country (NOT just the South) have treated black folks as automatic suspects from day one. But they never had the audacity to make it public, to make it policy, to pass their bigotry into law.

But the people of Arizona have shamed democracy. They have turned the rule of the people into the tyranny of the mob. The 70% do not have the right to vote to deprive the 30% of their God-given liberties and dignities.

Think about the practical application of this law one more time. We know that the people affected by this law are of a certain hue. They're not white. Unless there's some debilitating influx of Norwegians into Phoenix. They're brown.

So, who do you know that would be stopped under this law for simply walking down the street anywhere in Arizona? Who do you know that fits the suspicious color, that looks vaguely "illegal"?

We all know of one such person. And he is our President. Picture Barack walking down an alleyway in Phoenix, leaving work in a hoodie and timberland boots. Papers, please.