Lucius Junius Brutus and the Lesson for DACA

By any objective measure, Western Civilization is spectacularly successful.  One important reason for this is the Rule of Law.  It is said "we are a nation of laws, not men" and that "no man is above the law".  Well, "Rule of Law" is easy to say, but it can be agonizing to do, and Lucius Junius Brutus teaches us this lesson.

At the dawn of the Roman Republic, in the sixth century B.C., Brutus was one of the first consuls of Rome.  The establishment of the Roman republic involved an insurrection against their Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquinius the Proud).  Tarquinius conspired to regain his throne and Brutus's own sons, Titus and Tiberius, conspired with Tarquinius against the republic.

The conspiracy failed, and "Brutus gained respect for his stoicism in watching the execution of his own sons, even though he showed emotion during the punishment."

It is not easy to build a nation of laws.

There are surprisingly difficult ramifications of the Rule of Law.  One important ramification is that a criminal should not profit from his crime.  That is why, e.g., New York State passed the "Son of Sam Law" in the 1970's.

Until the serial murderer, David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam"), nobody imagined that a criminal could profit from his crimes by publishing his story.  There is the additional problem of the First Amendment, so the Son of Sam Law had to go through several iterations.  But, the basic principle is clear:  a criminal should not profit from his crimes.

Now, consider the problem of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.  Barack Obama, that vaunted professor of constitutional law, theorized that the children were small so breaking the law was not their fault.  Immediately, the children benefit from the criminality of their parents.

Then, once the children gain citizenship, their families---possibly including the very parents who originally broke the law---will benefit from chain migration.  Under Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, everybody benefits from criminality.  Except you.  What other inconvenient law should we ignore?  If DACA survives, the Rule of Law will not.

There are about 800,000 people at risk of deportation because of DACA.  Is that too big a number for the salvation of our Republic?  It is often said that about 620,000 citizens died fighting in the American Civil War.  That is true.  But if you include deaths from wounds and disease (disease being a serious problem in armies at war) then, including both sides, nearly 2 million people gave their lives to save our Republic.

In World Wars I and II, together, the United States sacrificed nearly 1 million dead and wounded, mainly for the benefit of others.  In the Vietnam war, nearly 50,000 Americans died.  And so on.

We are asking 800,000 DACA children to go home, most of whom are not children, anymore.  This is not such a big number, and nobody is asking them to die.  They just need to go home.

Furthermore, DACA is not about 800,000 individuals.  It is about the foundation of our society.  It is about the Rule of Law.  It is about the survival of "The Last Best Hope of Man on Earth."  If Lucius Junius Brutus could watch the execution of his own sons, to save the Roman Republic, you can deport the DACA children to save the United States of America.