This Needs Fixin'

I realize that this is a bit of a minority view at the moment.

But really, that’s what the State is for.

It does not exist, as the current regime seems to believe, to pursue delusional fantasies cooked up by a bunch of rabid weasels through whatever means make for the most demented TV.

Because that ignores the law, and the State exists for the law.

It also does not exist, as the current “opposition party” seems to believe, to pick and choose the bits of the law that make its ministers happiest in their heart chakras and ignore any bits that give it the bad feels.

Because that ignores the law, and the State exists for the law.

The purpose of the State is to be the embodiment, the avatar, of its laws in the world.

A functional State, by definition, cannot break the law because any actions by its ministers or agents that do violate the law would result in those agents being removed and punished.

A functional Sate can’t break its own laws.

The State is the Law.

A State that acts outside of its laws is self-contradictory and corrupt; it should be put down like the rabid dingo that it is.

But equally, a State that fails to enforce its laws equally across all the people and territory under its jurisdiction is also corrupt; it doesn’t deserve to exist either.

The State exists to enforce the law, but the State must also obey the law.

So you can see why I’d be unhappy with the coup and the regime it’s trying to usher in: as a State, it is inherently a failure since it’s premised on ignoring the law and acts purely from the unrestrained id of a cult of delusional narcissists.

But it should also be obvious why I’d be unhappy with the previous United States, since what actually kept it functioning was ignoring the parts of the law that any administration disliked and acting as though the law were whatever its preferences were at the time.

(And that’s just looking at them from a structural perspective; from a moral perspective they’re both abject failures too since they ignore the inherent rights of the citizens to impose the agenda of the small group in charge of the organs of State. But we’re being structuralist today.)

So, yes: we should not allow the coup to succeed.

It’s terrible, and needs to be put down vigorously.

But the United States it’s trying to replace wasn’t perfect at all, and now that it’s gone we should try for something better.

Build back, as they say, better.

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