Civil disobedience is a political tactic that has been used in some of the great liberation struggles, including the Civil Rights Movement. Civil disobedience is typically used by people on the political left. In fact, it is one of the tactics that was taught by Saul Alinsky. However, civil disobedience can also be used by someone with a right-wing agenda. One example is Kim Davis, the county clerk who was jailed for contempt of court for refusing to allow her office to issue marriage licenses. Her goal was to take a public stand against same-sex marriage. What is civil disobedience, and what does it mean when a right-winger like Kim Davis uses a tactic from Saul Alinsky's playbook? It means that the left is winning.
In civil disobedience, a person openly breaks a law or refuses to obey a
command of government and then willingly accepts the legal consequences
for his or her actions. The classical illustration was from the play
Antigone,
by Sophocles. King Creon had forbidden Antigone to bury her traitorous
brother
Polyneices, who had died on the battlefield. Nevertheless, Antigone
fulfills
her religious obligation to bury her brother's body. Then, she allows
herself
to be buried alive in punishment. In other words, Antigone obeyed divine
law, then she allowed herself to be punished in accordance with man's
law. In Sophocles's
version of the story, Antigone hangs herself in the tomb and Creon is
then punished
by the death of his wife Eurydice and his son Haemon. The moral of the
story was twofold: a heroic person does what is right and then bravely
accepts the consequences,
whereas an unwise ruler can destroy his own happiness by imposing unjust
laws. In
contrast, the playwright Euripides gave the story a Hollywood ending:
Antigone is saved by the god
Dionysus and marries Haemon.
The purpose of civil disobedience is to show respect for the
principle of the rule of law while protesting that a particular law is unjust.
An act of civil disobedience is often a crime, in that it involves breaking a
law. However, civil disobedience is different from ordinary crime. Ordinary
criminals generally expect to benefit in some way from breaking the law. In
contrast, acts of civil disobedience serve the public, often at great cost to the
person who performed the act. Criminals often carry out their offenses
secretly, and they attempt to avoid punishment. In contrast, acts of civil
disobedience are performed in public as political theater, and the performers willingly
submit themselves for punishment.
Civil disobedience is based on the idea that a law can violate
a higher moral principle, such as a religious principle. In many ancient
civilizations, there was no practical difference between civil law and
religious law: kings and emperors were considered to be gods or at least
demigods. Acts of
civil disobedience would make sense only to people who understand that
they are
being governed by other ordinary human beings, as opposed to being ruled by
divinities or prophets.
As a public official, Kim Davis presumably took an oath of office, in which she swore or affirmed that she would uphold the U.S. Constitution and the constitution of the state of Kentucky. As a member of the executive branch of government, she must carry out (execute) the laws that were passed by the legislature and signed into law by the chief executive, unless those laws have been overturned by the judicial branch of government as unconstitutional.
State legislatures can pass any law that they wish. Yet if the judiciary decides that a state law violates the state's constitution or the U.S. Constitution, that law no longer has the force of law. For example, a state legislature can pass a law that specifies that a marriage can only be between one man and one woman. Yet on Jun 26, 2015, the Supreme Court decided, in the case of Obergefell v Hodges, that laws against same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. In that decision, the Supreme Court held that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Thus, the Supreme Court overruled all state laws against same-sex marriage. Because of this decision, same-sex marriages have equal legal standing with opposite-sex marriages in federal and state courts. A priest may still refuse to perform a same-sex wedding (or the wedding of a divorced person), but county clerks can no longer refuse to issue a marriage license to a couple simply because the members of the couple are the same sex.
Davis had clearly performed an act of civil disobedience. She disobeyed the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court, and she even disobeyed a federal court order. She claimed that she was acting under God's authority. Then, she allowed herself to be jailed. She was released after the deputy clerks issued marriage licenses to the plaintiffs. Because of this act of civil disobedience, some right-wing commentators have compared her to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet King was standing up for extending basic human rights to all Americans, while Davis refused a court order to treat everyone fairly.
Now that there is such broad acceptance of same-sex marriage, many Americans feel that it was cruel and unfair for Davis to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. An opinion poll showed that 56% of Americans approved of the judge's decision to send her to jail. Even most of the Republicans respondents felt that Davis should resign her post as county clerk.
An act of civil disobedience is a way to assert moral superiority. Thus, for an act of civil disobedience to be effective as political theater, it must be performed by someone whom the public respects as a teacher of righteousness. Otherwise, it is farce, not tragedy. Davis claims that gay marriage is against her Christian religion. However, many commentators have argued that Davis is a hypocrite. In the New Testament, Christ never mentions homosexuality but specifically condemns hypocrisy and divorce. Davis is currently in her fourth marriage, her first three having ended in divorce. She also bore two children out of wedlock.
It is unusual to see someone with right-wing politics use civil disobedience. The reason is simple. The people on the right are usually taking the side of the people who have the power to make or change the law. The concept of left-wing and right-wing arose during the French Revolution. In the National Assembly of 1789, the king's supporters sat to the President's right and the supporters of the revolution sat to his left. Thus, leftists support common people and stand up for the underdog. In contrast, rightists are either powerful people or those who serve the powerful. Powerful people can use their power to shape the law to serve their interests. Thus, they have no need to use civil disobedience. In fact, it would serve their interests to discourage anyone from performing civil disobedience. For that reason, civil disobedience has traditionally been used by people on the political left, to encourage the public to demand change.
Civil disobedience is political theater. For an act of civil disobedience to be effective, it must also have an audience. For that reason, it is unusual for someone who performs acts of civil disobedience to get broad coverage in the media. The people who own the major media can give favorable coverage to the political candidates who support their agenda. In return, elected officials support the agenda of the people who brought them to power. If legislators want to keep dancing, they dance with the people who brought them to the dance. Thus, civil disobedience is usually performed by people who don't have the power to make law: people whose political agenda runs counter to the interests of the people who own and control the major media.
Kim Davis is now a household name, but Sister Megan Rice is not. Sister Megan Rice is a Roman Catholic nun, a Religious Sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. She is also a member of the Plowshares movement, which is a Christian movement against nuclear weapons. It was founded by Daniel and Phillip Berrigan and six others (the Plowshares Eight). Their name was inspired by a verse from the book of Isaiah in the Bible:
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.Sister Megan has been arrested more than three dozen times and jailed three times for acts of civil disobedience to protest nuclear weaponry.
In July 2012, Sister Megan and two other members of the Plowshares organization broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They cut through the barbed wire fences and made their way to a bunker that stored nuclear weapons and support material. They hung banners and crime-scene tape. They painted messages such as "The fruit of justice is peace." They splashed human blood on the outside of the bunker. Although they set off alarms, it took two hours before guards found them. When the guards arrived, the activists offered to break bread with them.
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