This Kim Davis Thing

I have to admit that the whole Kim Davis thing conflicts me.

She has a local public government job so she really loses all possibility of choosing what jobs to perform. She’s public servant — emphasis on public and servant. This was the job that she campaigned for (it’s an elected office). It wasn’t foisted upon her (though it sort of changed after she was seated). She wasn’t promoted into the job but sought it out. If she didn’t like everything about the job (including potential changes) she probably shouldn’t have run for it. She is supposed to serve all of the county’s citizens.

Yet our liberals have set out a precedent that public servants don’t have to actually perform jobs that that they are uncomfortable with. Look at the mayors, city councils, et al, of “sanctuary cities” and their refusal to enforce immigration laws or cooperate with federal authorities on immigration law enforcement. Or look at King Barry, he specifically ordered immigration officials to not enforce laws, even if some of them felt compelled to do their jobs.

Kim Davis was actually jailed by a federal court judge for “contempt” of his court by not issuing the marriage licenses, in support of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Obergfell decision.

So a federal judge, not a judge for the state of Kentucky or the county of Rowan, has decided to jail a county officer for not doing his bidding.

A federal judge is not an enabler of a county. A federal judge is not an officer of that county nor of that state. A federal judge does not sign Davis’s paycheck nor contribute to the county in any Constitutional, statutory, economic or civil way. He would seem to have no legal connection to Davis, her office or her county other than some declaratory overlord relationship. Maybe subservience is a better description.

Why do we even bother with local authorities anymore? Why not just have federal judges run everything? After all, by their own acknowledgment, they know so much better how to run the county than the yokels that live in those counties.

Who voted for this judge? No one in Rowan County. No one in Kentucky. No one in the United States voted for this judge. U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning is appointed by an authority outside of the state.

It needs to pointed out that Bunning was appointed to his position by George W. Bush and is the son of former Rep. Jim Bunning, a Republican. Davis herself is listed as a Democrat (Kentucky is the last redoubt of Yellow Dog conservative Democrats).

Things like this should engender a serious debate of the role and power of our federal judiciary.

Why is this woman being detained? Why not move to have her removed from office, for failing to fulfill her duties (as decided by this ‘inferior’ court), by the tools available to the citizens of Rowan County or the state of Kentucky?

Is it because the outcome of those time-consuming attempts possibly wouldn’t satisfy the gays behind this legal imbroglio?

Why the recourse to instantly federalize this issue and legally annihilate anyone standing in the way? We have time-honored and traditional models of dealing with public servants accused of not doing their jobs.

For centuries marriage laws have been the jurisdiction of states and their counties. Local community values, such as age, were defined and addressed by this approach. Few things are more “community” than marriage and its traditions.

What’s the hurry? Gay marriage was just ruled “legal” or “Constitutional” last June, having not previously been seen in the Constitution in the centuries before.

But suddenly marriage laws have become a one-size-fits-all (or fits liberal preferences) federal government issue. Everyone has to turn on a dime.

Here’s a question: Are the people pushing the legal proceedings actually citizens of Rowan County? Kentucky? Do they really have standing?

I can’t believe there are that many gay couples in Rowan County (population 23,000) demanding marriage licenses…

This proceeding would seem to have been concocted by legal tourists looking to start trouble. The “couples” I heard on the radio reports declaring their sudden liberation and joy didn’t exactly have Kentucky accents (though I’m sure there are gays in Kentucky).

If the supposed gay wave of Rowan County can’t obtain marriage licenses, nothing prevents them from moving or applying to the state of Kentucky for a remedy. Don’t like the laws of Rowan County or Kentucky? Run for office to change things, assuming that the citizenry wants to change, or move. Go live with people who are like you, share your values and want to be with you.

That’s the way things are/were supposed to be handled.

No longer. Increasingly, every conflict, disagreement, political issue is being inflated into a big issue and federalized. No doubt some of this intention is that liberals are increasingly dominant in the judiciary. If you can;t win at the ballot box, using the judiciary to obtain your goals has long been a liberal tactic.

The decent thing for the “couples” would have been to go elsewhere and let Davis suffer at the hands of the Rowan County citizens, if they want gay marriage. If not, why not let them live in their “backward,” insufficiently enlightened world.

But why be friendly when you can be a bully and make people you don’t like knuckle under to your particular desires? Especially when you have big brother behind you. That’s modern liberalism in a nutshell. It’s about power and submission.

Of course one can also argue it’s also true for Kim Davis and her supporters. She precipitated this.

This whole mess is an overreaction. No one is dying because Kim Davis refuses to issue marriage licenses to a handful of gays. Yet people are dying because King Barry and the officials of several cities, counties and states refuse to enforce the laws, notably on immigration, that they have sworn to uphold. Where’s the Supreme Court on this? Where’s Judge Bunning? Where are the activists now demanding compete and instant obeisance to the latest judicial farago? (You’ll find a lot of those ‘activists’ are also supportive of the law-ignoring sanctuary cities movement, how ironic.)