Lawfare and ignoring reality has gotten America where it is today

Lawfare is a term that has only recently risen to awareness with the general public because of the trials and tribulations of President Donald Trump. Lawfare failed miserably as a strategy to keep Trump out of the White House. In fact, lawfare may very well be the reason so many Americans awakened to the gross abuse of the law by their corrupt federal and state governments. Said abuse probably led to the landslide victory for Trump last November. American voters are not ready to accept those kinds of abuse of power by a corrupt government.

Lawfare: noun

1. the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent
2. the use of the law by a country against its enemies, esp by challenging the legality of military or foreign policy ~ Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

Although the term lawfare has not had widespread use in America until recently, lawfare has been used and abused in America for more than half a century. In my humble opinion, the misuse of lawfare is the root cause of many of the problems in America today. This includes our bloated federal government.

Lawfare in America started in earnest in the 1960s with the environmental movement. Environmental attorneys determined that they could gum up the works of an industry by using frivolous lawsuits in the name of protecting the environment. Whether the lawyers or their clients have any real knowledge and understanding of the underlying issues is irrelevant. The point is to use the legal system to gum up the works by slowing things down to a point where it is too expensive to continue. The worst byproduct of lawfare in America is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This agency has produced some of the most egregious and destructive regulations in America. The American lumber industry was the first to fall to draconian environmental regulations, and now a full court press has been out to destroy the coal, oil, and gas industries.

In order to protect and preserve the 20^th century forests, “historic wisdom” was used to manage the forests by cutting timber and controlled fire for long term forest health. 

The unintended consequences of the 1960s environmental forest management theories are being faced in the 21^st century unprecedented massive wildland fires

Then came the EPA air quality regulations which prohibited or severely limited necessary controlled burning (now called prescribed burning) along with saving the owls. This has resulted in 21^st century annual monster wildfires, which didn’t happen before these severe regulatory restrictions. 

Basically, the environmental do-gooders and their lawfare warriors didn’t know what the hell they were doing. The professional foresters got trumped by fools, idiot government regulators, and ignorant juries in courtrooms. The unintended consequences of the 1960s environmental forest management theories are being faced in the 21^st century unprecedented massive wildland fires.

In the 20^th century, the environmentalists were focused on saving trees, owls, whales, baby seals, wolves, and other perceived “endangered species.” Now in the 21^st century, environmentalists are focused on “clean energy” projects that destroy thousands of acres of habitat under solar panel fields and wind generator farms which kill unprecedented numbers of birds, including endangered species. More whales are washing up on beaches each year near wind farms in the ocean than historically washed up in decades. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Then there is the hoax that electric vehicles are pollution free. That just ain’t so! The pollution is simply occurring where ever the electricity is being produced to charge electric vehicles. The environmental damage to produce electric vehicles and their batteries can hardly be measured, but no worries, slaves are gathering these materials in third world countries.

Lawfare in America exists because lawyers have had far too much influence within legislative bodies all across America

American liberals don’t want these materials if they have to come out of their backyard, nor do they want solar and wind machine farms where they live.

The ideology of the “green new deal” is another massive hoax. This technology has been put into action far too prematurely. It is too expensive. It is too unreliable. It is too damaging to the environment. It is too damaging to wildlife. Ideologues have tried to force a technology on us that is really still in the experimental stages of development. It could be decades before these technologies become economically practical; until then common sense needs to come into play. Lawfare and ignoring reality has gotten America where it is today.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Lawfare in America exists because lawyers have had far too much influence within legislative bodies all across America. In 2021, approximately 37% of Congress was composed of lawyers. In the history of America, approximately 60% of our Presidents have been lawyers. This doesn’t even take into account how many lawyers are on congressional staff. Is it any wonder that the government laws and regulations are so convoluted?

I will close with this quote by James Madison that sums up why lawfare is an effective tool.

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." ~ James Madison

After a 55 year career as a professional pilot in the military, in law enforcement, in the private sector, and in federal civil service, I am now retired.

In many of these positions I repeatedly took an oath to defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.