Our democracy should seek to maximize its performance and position in the world. Most Americans agree with those values and believe it is inherent to protect our natural rights and freedoms. There are some who do not believe in those freedoms and will misuse their authority to further racial, religious, political or ideological divides at the expense of their communities and the nation at large. The following example is hypothetical and for learning purposes only so take with a grain of salt. It does highlight where some risks may lay. Let us keep in mind that the greatest risk to our nation is not from the outside but inside where these poor values are allowed to fester and grow.
The Clan:
A homogeneous clan is spurred into action by a few clan leaders that had racial, religious, and financial incentives to act. Based on the bigotries and poor socialization, group members quickly began to target others as blind monkeys (term for people used as extensions of harm. Wizard of Oz.). A few officials within the group began to spread a hate narratives to help fellow clan members and that turned into wholesale attempts to cleans people out of town. People of different races and religions were intentionally targeted as "outsiders" and there were no backstops within the local justice system. The free hand of the group hinted at a much larger problem that spanned decades.
(I use the term clan because of their homogeneous perceptions and affiliations but one might also think of this group as have characteristics similar to a Steven King type Cult.
What is a Cult?)
Prior Complaints and Complacency:
There were numerous prior complaints over decades that were ignored and/or retaliated against. It appeared that the complaints were also shared with the perpetrators that furthered aggression against the targets to silence them. Extremist leaning groups used secretive lists to encourage wider harm to those they didn't like (not the purpose of these systems). Risks of assaults, intimidating environments, misuse of our systems, hate narratives, bullying, violations of basic laws became the norm. Major human rights violations. The coordination of the retaliation also indicated the potential of a much larger problem associated with violent extremists/terrorism in other areas; on official and unofficial levels.
The Pattern:
Over a number a number of years people who were tired of having their complaints ignored began to publicly report events and this seemed to have tipped the scales against the extremist leaning corrupted officials. Multiple people with evidence came forward and the house of cards began to fall as more and more victims came forward changing the narratives they used against minorities, the vulnerable, and women. Each seemed to point back to the central group that received certain benefits via association and had those benefits protected in local legal systems. As of today these systems told the perpetrators again "no, don't get yourself in trouble" but have not made any meaningful change nor adjusted their performance to better serve the public.
The Short and Long Term Result:
Perpetrators are typically rewarded and protected for their behaviors in a type of defacto default of justice. Yet there was too much evidence to sweep it under the carpet so they sought to minimize the perceptual impact in a way that also circumvents needed change. At present victims of the past, present and future have been dismissed (The example story isn't finished yet.). In a turn of events, the behavior created much more exposure and awareness of corruption and coordinated misbehaviors. It is now part of people's conscious that the patterns are of corruption are present and the desire to protect the perpetrators is the goal of some officials who were entrusted by society to root out such corruption.
Despite the lack of respect for our laws and our people, justice will be forced unwilling through natural checks n balance that come from our inner need to live in a free and safe society. While some of our leaders encourage mayhem by building unsafe environments, at the end of the day the will of the people will prevail. The path we take will be the determinant of how we connect perception and reality with rhetoric and outcome. I'm an optimist that despite the poor choices of such leaders they broke too many eggs to just use the mantra "it was the victim's fault".
The Victims:
While numerous victims have come forward they haven't received much protection or justice in the local system thus far. There appears on the surface to be more concern over protecting homogeneous clan members than there is for upholding the spirit and intent of the law. While there should be culpability for the creation of victims of the past, victims of the present unchecked corruption is likely to make victims of the future. We know when we willful choose perpetrators over the victims we are on the wrong moral path that must be corrected to maintain system integrity. Coordinating the victims and complaints so they can't be ignored might be important as reporting publicly seems to force rally of the wagons behaviors that are detrimental to positive change. Decision makers cannot pretend the people within their clan are not responsible for behaviors without looking like co-conspirators and supporters. Unfortunately, the victims take all the risks of the past and more recent threats and risks of assaults indicate a lack of commitment to dealing with this problem. The victims have few rights.
What One Might Hope:
Instead of expending resources hiding crimes and protecting them we might embrace them and see it as an opportunity of improvement. It isn't all about getting people in trouble. It is about ensuring these local institutions are focused on our greater American cause and values and that where there is misalignment it is corrected. In other words, these systems are not aligned to our American values of liberty and freedom. One might even go as far and doing completely new things and exploring the possibilities of turning the chaos of lack of values into something helpful, cost effective, and highly functioning (Many things can be an opportunity if you look at them the right way.)
The Moral Implications:
The moral implications are pretty big. If we know that people did things wrong intentionally and directly against some core American values such as freedom of religion, free speech, civil rights, racial considerations, etc. along with less serious crimes such as harassment, defamation of character, discrimination, sexual assaults, bribery/extortion, manipulate the elderly, job rejection, etc. we have much bigger issues to deal with. It isn't just the perpetrators who committed the crimes that is the issue but also the environment that seemed to encourage such behaviors. The inability to listen to people's needs, retaliation against people reporting accurate complaints, and the intentional religious and racial harm of people is not acceptable in our society. No matter how powerful the players, no matter the misuse of our resources, or the ideology of extremism so on and so forth they sought to damage our indivisibility. Anyone from top to bottom that placates that or protects that is on the wrong side of history and not qualified for their roles. They are sell outs to our American cause. Our nation should bring forward the best and brightest to take leadership roles to ensure the long term health of our democracy. Assuming that is still important to people...that I can't answer for them. It would seem to me where intentional wrong doing has occurred our leadership has moral responsibility to do the right thing, correct those mistakes, and put in place safeguards. If they can't then I would question their leadership capacity and commitment to our American values.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” – Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, 1776
*This is a thought experiment on a hypothetical example on freedom of speech , freedom of religion, and our Constitution. Take with a grain of salt as it is for exploring and learning purposes only.
