August of 2022 is almost over. Aside form the warm weather there were 2 happy events here in Michigan.
First was the retiring of the jersey of Lou Whitaker, second baseman for the Detroit Tigers 1984 MLB champion team. He and Alan Trammel turned 751 double plays, most in history. This honor was way overdue. I reveled in watching all the fanfare.
Second was the happy (for me) ending of a political dynasty here in Michigan. For the better part of 50 years Sander Levin in the House and Carl Levin in the Senate dominated Michigan politics. Both are retired now (Carl has since passed) but Sander's son Andrew rose to take his dad's seat in the House.
In my view, both brothers were what Ayn Rand called in her essay* "The left, Old and New" members of the old left which she referred to as having some respect for individual rights and freedoms. But as the Democrat Party was eventually taken over by the new socialist left, the pair joined the movement. This I believe is what Andy Levin experienced in school.
Every time there was a shooting Andy Levin called for more restrictions on all gun owners who didn't do it. Instead of looking for a reason why some men choose to kill others (I suggest progressive education) he blamed the availability of guns and tried to place more restrictions on all gun owners.
He was advocating the illegal and immoral principle of preventive law. I'm not talking here about preventive crime where police are notified of a impending crime and move to prevent it, an idea which our Constitution supports.
Preventive law is based on the principle of the presumption of guilt, the exact opposite of the Constitution's presumption of innocence principle. Preventive law says you are presumed to be guilty of a future crime and must prove your future innocence today by obeying a forced rule of behavior today.
So, if you don't obey this rule of behavior your crime, instead of being a rights violation will be that of a rule breaker. That's how free nations devolve into dictatorships. The crime of rights violator is replaced by rule breaker. Once a society accepts this reversal, it is done for. That is why I'm glad Andy Levin lost in the primary. There's hope.
I have no idea whether his ouster, Haley Stevens, will be any better but I'll see..
*The above essay can be found in Rand's book collection of essays titled "Return of the Primitive" which is still in print.
