debut: 2/16/17
39,682 runs
What Happened to the Light on the Hill? America!!
What happened to the light on the hill? Once, America prided itself on being a beacon—a nation of laws and ideals, a refuge for the oppressed, and a place where due process was a sacred promise. The inscribed hopes in bronze on the Statue of Liberty, welcoming the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Today, those words hang heavy with irony. The shine that once illuminated the world has faded to the barest flicker
Let’s not mince words: snatching people off the streets, denying them due process, and casting them into unfamiliar lands is not deportation. It is a state-sanctioned disappearance. It is an affront to both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution—a practice once unthinkable, yet now unfolding with alarming regularity before our eyes.
When U.S. Marines are deployed to quell protests by citizens exercising their fundamental rights, you have to ask: What have you become, America?
But the rot goes deeper still, corroding the very institution meant to safeguard justice—the Supreme Court. The Court’s history is stained: several justices involved in the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to people of African descent, were themselves slaveholders. In fact, a significant number of early justices owned slaves, exposing a grotesque hypocrisy at the heart of the nation’s “justice” system.
Today, the pendulum swings anew. Some justices seem driven not by the Constitution, but by personal dogma or naked partisanship. Racism and corruption may not always declare themselves, but they are visible in the logic—or lack thereof—behind recent rulings. The Court is not simply divided; it is fractured along lines of principle and power. The so-called “conservative majority” has abandoned even the pretence of consistent, principled jurisprudence. They cherry-pick cases, sidestep clear constitutional protections, and issue rulings that read more like partisan manifestos than legal opinions. Sometimes, they dispense with reason altogether, publishing decisions without a majority opinion—perhaps because their logic cannot withstand the light of scrutiny. When dissenting opinions stretch to nineteen pages, it is not merely judicial disagreement; it is a distress signal.
What does it mean when the highest court in the land subverts its own norms? It means the rule of law is eroding at the root. The Supreme Court, once a bulwark against overreach, now too often serves as a rubber stamp for ideological extremism—wielded by those who treat the law as a weapon, not a trust. This is not just an academic crisis. It is a crisis for real people: immigrants torn from their families, minorities stripped of protections, voters disenfranchised, and the vulnerable abandoned.
America did not arrive here overnight. The road was paved by decades of political manoeuvring—court-packing, bad-faith confirmations, and the relentless erosion of democratic norms. The Constitution was always aspirational, never self-executing. It demands good faith from those entrusted to uphold it. What we witness now is a betrayal of that trust.
How did America get here? By allowing cynicism to replace civic engagement. By accepting that power outweighs principle. By averting our gaze as institutions were hollowed out and repurposed for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.
The light on the hill is not yet extinguished—but it gutters in the wind. If America is to reclaim its promise, it must begin with reckoning: with the courts, with its leaders, and with ourselves. She must demand transparency, accountability, and a return to foundational values. Anything less, and the Constitution will remain what the Court has made it—an artifact, quoted in dissent but ignored in practice.
And if America fails to act? The darkness that follows will be of its own making. The world will remember not just that the light dimmed, but that she let it die.
Sarge
What happened to the light on the hill? Once, America prided itself on being a beacon—a nation of laws and ideals, a refuge for the oppressed, and a place where due process was a sacred promise. The inscribed hopes in bronze on the Statue of Liberty, welcoming the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Today, those words hang heavy with irony. The shine that once illuminated the world has faded to the barest flicker
Let’s not mince words: snatching people off the streets, denying them due process, and casting them into unfamiliar lands is not deportation. It is a state-sanctioned disappearance. It is an affront to both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution—a practice once unthinkable, yet now unfolding with alarming regularity before our eyes.
When U.S. Marines are deployed to quell protests by citizens exercising their fundamental rights, you have to ask: What have you become, America?
But the rot goes deeper still, corroding the very institution meant to safeguard justice—the Supreme Court. The Court’s history is stained: several justices involved in the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to people of African descent, were themselves slaveholders. In fact, a significant number of early justices owned slaves, exposing a grotesque hypocrisy at the heart of the nation’s “justice” system.
Today, the pendulum swings anew. Some justices seem driven not by the Constitution, but by personal dogma or naked partisanship. Racism and corruption may not always declare themselves, but they are visible in the logic—or lack thereof—behind recent rulings. The Court is not simply divided; it is fractured along lines of principle and power. The so-called “conservative majority” has abandoned even the pretence of consistent, principled jurisprudence. They cherry-pick cases, sidestep clear constitutional protections, and issue rulings that read more like partisan manifestos than legal opinions. Sometimes, they dispense with reason altogether, publishing decisions without a majority opinion—perhaps because their logic cannot withstand the light of scrutiny. When dissenting opinions stretch to nineteen pages, it is not merely judicial disagreement; it is a distress signal.
What does it mean when the highest court in the land subverts its own norms? It means the rule of law is eroding at the root. The Supreme Court, once a bulwark against overreach, now too often serves as a rubber stamp for ideological extremism—wielded by those who treat the law as a weapon, not a trust. This is not just an academic crisis. It is a crisis for real people: immigrants torn from their families, minorities stripped of protections, voters disenfranchised, and the vulnerable abandoned.
America did not arrive here overnight. The road was paved by decades of political manoeuvring—court-packing, bad-faith confirmations, and the relentless erosion of democratic norms. The Constitution was always aspirational, never self-executing. It demands good faith from those entrusted to uphold it. What we witness now is a betrayal of that trust.
How did America get here? By allowing cynicism to replace civic engagement. By accepting that power outweighs principle. By averting our gaze as institutions were hollowed out and repurposed for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.
The light on the hill is not yet extinguished—but it gutters in the wind. If America is to reclaim its promise, it must begin with reckoning: with the courts, with its leaders, and with ourselves. She must demand transparency, accountability, and a return to foundational values. Anything less, and the Constitution will remain what the Court has made it—an artifact, quoted in dissent but ignored in practice.
And if America fails to act? The darkness that follows will be of its own making. The world will remember not just that the light dimmed, but that she let it die.
Sarge
