Just try it. Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. Life is unfair. And we don't control the levers of power.
And if this holds to be so, then we are finished as the (classical) liberal state of all time, and Jefferson’s words are on the ash heap of history.
We are certainly getting close. I see massive corruption within government, including from the career civil service who have decided to take sides. What is happening at the DOJ, IRS, EPA, etc. is very worrying. We have DOD altering intelligence to fit a political narrative. We have government funding of infanticide without outrage and passion from Congress and the WH. For the GOP-controlled Congress, it is a minor issue not worthy of forcing Obama to shut down the government.
I will not. I know many more that will not. It is a time and thinking like this that sows rebellions and revolutions. The elites cannot guarantee they will win.
This happened before in our history in 1776.
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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security
A wise elite would consider allowing Hillary to get away with lawlessness a bridge too far and withdraw, forcing the law to prevail. My fear, aside from what I’ve already addressed, is that their are no wise elites.
One would think that Obamacare, the two Obama executive amnesties, a rogue, partisan IRS, a SCOTUS that legislates from the bench, an out of control EPA, etc, would trigger a major reaction. The elites have suffered no consequences for their lawlessness. There are no bridges too far.
Maybe Trump. May he win!
It is worth a shot. Things can't get much worse with him. The prospect of a Hillary or Jeb or Rubio is frightening.
You are right in so far as being compelled to obey the law when force is used, however...
What is lost is the MORAL obligation to follow the law. Consider the black markets that evolved in the Soviet Union. Certainly the punishment for getting caught, especially if you were a lowly peasant or non-important entity was horribly cruel: death, gulag (slow death) even punishment of your entire family, yet many tens of thousands wound up involved in the black market as both sellers AND buyers (with either role getting punished).
Right now, we have exactly such a situation with illegal aliens, whether creeping in from Mexico or not taking that return flight to home they said they would. We have cities disobeying the law by declaring themselves Sanctuaries (from the law). Tens of thousands, maybe millions smoke (illegal) pot, take drugs, drive drunk, heck, even disobey the speed limits and other traffic laws.
Every blatantly illegal act by a powerful government official, protected social class or an elite only contributes to and justifies lawlessness by everyone else.
Was there ever a time when the majority of our elected officials felt a moral obligation to do their duty and follow the law? Maybe once upon a time, but I can tell you that I do not think there are many left in this day and age!