Our American experiment is the fever dream of a culture profoundly suspicious of power: Flip the concept of government upside down so “the People’’ are the sovereign and the government serves them. The People have all the rights, and the government has none.
The government can’t function without some power, so we the People grant the government just enough to do its job, not one iota more. That means granting some power to fellow citizens who work in the government, and we hate doing that, especially when it comes to punishing people. So we make the power to punish somebody conditional: It doesn’t kick in until the government proves to a random bunch of us that the punishment is justified.
This tedious process isn’t about being nice to criminals; rather, it is the honor we owe to our uniquely upside-down concept of government. Denying this tedious process to someone like Kilmar Abrego Garcia isn’t being tough; it’s the government spitting in America’s face. At some point America is going to spit back.
Jape Shattuck
Newport, R.I.
