I am generally an accepting person of people having different views. Having been a Libertarian since before it was cool, it was always necessary. But the recent support of Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s actions is not something that I am able to just stand by and say nothing about. I won’t get into the basic facts of the situation since I’m sure if you have access to a radio, newspaper, or any form of communication you have read about it.
On social media, I have run into more than one person comparing the clerk to that of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. Connecting Mrs. Parks to that of Kim Davis baffles me. Rosa Parks took a bold stand to willfully violate the law to ensure that she and others would be able to have equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Mrs. Parks broke the law to help expand individual liberty at the expense of Government promoted tyranny. But Mrs. Davis’s actions are actually more akin to that of the infamous Governor George Corley Wallace, Jr.
George Wallace is most famous for his famous ‘stand at the courthouse steps”. George Wallace was the Governor of Alabama during a period of immense social and political change. Governor Wallace did not agree with federal court orders requiring that the University of Alabama and other public intuitions be integrated. He did not agree with the court decision of Brown v. Board of Education which ruled the legal concept of “separate but equal” as being not constitutional. The Governors unwillingness to obey the constitution of the United States led to a federal court order. It would escalate to the President John F. Kennedy federalizing the National Guard, and General Henry Graham demanding the Governor’s compliance. The Governor had deeply held personal beliefs that segregation was morally good, and that he had an obligation to enforce it. His personal beliefs on the subject compelled him to use the force of government to deny others constitutionally affirmed rights. This brings me back to the Clerk in Kentucky.
Mrs. Davis is, for all intents and purposes, rehashing the battle that George Wallace lost over fifty years ago. Both have bigoted personal beliefs that they are attempting to impose on others as agents of the government. It’s one thing that both had strongly held convictions as individuals, but as elected officials they both had a duty to uphold the laws they were elected to enforce. Both opposed the 14th amendment on the grounds it clashed with the 10th Amendment. The similarities between the two are uncanny. Watch Governor Wallace’s speech.
If she is unwilling to discharge the duties of the office of Clerk of the County of Rowan County she has a duty to resign from the office. I find it sad that anyone in 2015, would be using the same arguments to defend Kim Davis that George Wallace used to disenfranchise blacks in 1963.
