The Takeover of America’s Legal System – Common Sense
The old-school liberals, those who have been around for three or four decades, say that none of this was supposed to happen.
Several attorneys called FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter s thread and her almost off-the-cuff reference to South Africa deeply unsettling. Of all places, they said, South Africa? Did she know what was going on there? (Slaughter and her assistant did not return calls and text messages.)
In July, there had been rioting, looting, Molotov cocktails, people pulled from their cars and families hacked to death in their homes. The demonstrations had been sparked by the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, now serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. But the real causes had been percolating for decades: a faltering economy, corruption, and the deeply divisive policies of the ruling African National Congress, which Slaughter held up as a model of #racialequity.
It started in 1998 with the Competition Act, an antitrust law that effectively required businesses to be partly black-owned. The act was an early example of Black Economic Empowerment race-conscious policies aimed at lifting black South Africans out of poverty.
It was a disaster. Soon, companies were being forced to cede large chunks of their equity to black shareholders, many of whom were well-connected to the ANC. Foreign investment dried up the regulations imposed huge costs on businesses and corruption and unemployment soared.
By 2009, Moeletsi Mbeki, a black South African political economist, was warning that South Africa s race-conscious policies would collapse the country. By 2021, South Africa s unemployment rate was 44%, the highest in the world.
All this had culminated in the riots that killed 300 people and destroyed scores of businesses. This was the country a U.S. antitrust official wanted to emulate.
At stake, said Noah Phillips, also an FTC commissioner, was not just trade or competition but the American justice system itself. How we govern ourselves. What we mean by democracy and the rule of law.
We should strive to meet the promise that is literally chiseled into the stone of the Department of Justice and courthouses across the country, Phillips told me. That is: the law should be applied equally. Deliberately attempting to apply the law in an unequal fashion, based on the preferences of those in power, is inimical to the rule of law.
On November 12, the FTC released a draft strategic plan for the next five years. One of its main objectives: use the agency s power to advance racial equity.
I posted this before, but it’s so good, I’m doing it again.