Lawyers, the Most Fundamental Defense: John Eastman explains Shakespeare’s ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’

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On May 9, 2024, Michigan Fair Elections (MFE) and Stand Up Michigan co-sponsor an event in Lansing, Michigan featuring the renowned Attorney John Eastman. The Juris Doctor and Ph.D. has been pilloried for representing a president of the United States.

During his talk Eastman made reference to this quote by a dastardly villain, Dick the Butcher, in a Shakespearian play:

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
–William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II Act IV, Scene II written between 1596 and 1599.

Shakespeare crafted that line about 425 years ago for Dick the Butcher, and the pithy sentence is often used today to disparage the legal profession. But Dick is a bad guy, a junk-yard-dog-vicious murderer. His comment is less joke and more grisly strategy.

Dick and his accomplice, Jack Cade, are planning a coup. In their brutal, aggressive, and anti-intellectual minds, they understand that in order for their coup to succeed, they must eliminate their opponents. To clear the way for their takeover, Dick and Cade kill anyone who can read. They burn every book and document they encounter. They realize they must knee-cap the defenders of justice.

Why? Dick, aptly named the Butcher, understands that the rule of law and its staunch guardians are a weight-bearing pillar to a fair and peaceful society. An ignorant population is easier to control than an educated one where people know their rights.

“Shakespeare was representing lawyers as the most fundamental defense against the grossest manifestations of power-hungry overreach wrought by the scum of humanity,” writes the Literary Hub.

 Dick and Cade are fictional characters. But Sun Tzu, circa 481 to 221 BC, was real. Not only did the Chinese warrior predate Shakespeare by up to 2,000 years, he documented the deadly reality of the strategy in war. Rule #2 in the Art of War reads,

“Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

Mao Zedong turned the Bard’s and Sun Tzu’s words into reality when he ushered in the Chinese communist revolution over a four-year timespan. Between 1945 and 1949, Mao killed, “re-educated,” or sent all the educated intellectuals to labor in the fields. Then for 27 years, Mao continued his crushing reign, creating the new People’s Republic of China and solidifying the Chinese Communist Party’s control of every aspect of society.

During the two-year period between 1960 and 1962, 30 million Chinese starved to death in the largest single famine in recorded human history. The equivalent of all the people in Michigan, multiplied times 3, starved to death, not from droughts or floods or acts of God, but from poor, preventable political decisions.

Today, General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Chinese Communist Party models his Communist regime after Mao.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens shared this reading of the Shakespearian line in a 1985 decision:

“As a careful reading of that text will reveal, Shakespeare insightfully realized that disposing of lawyers is a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government.”

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Below is this writer’s introduction to the event and John Eastman: 

You Have a Right to an Attorney. Introduction to Dr. John Eastman

Our constitutional republic contains democratic principles, but our government is NOT a democracy. In fact, the Founding Fathers of this nation warned that true democracy is prone to falling victim to mobocracy. 

In the United States we elect representatives to speak for us in our towns and counties, in our state legislature, and the U.S. Congress. Every 4 years we elect a president to represent us.

Our judicial system evolved over hundreds of years based on biblical and philosophical principles. This infusion of thought made our system of government time-tested and revolutionary. Unlike other nations, the Framers of the Constitution created three branches of government: executive legislative, and judicial.

Recognizing that absolute power corrupts absolutely, they structured each branch to have the authority to pull the reins back on the other branches. They created a check and balance system to stop would-be dictators, kings, premieres…or power-hungry presidents.

What our forefathers feared most was this great republic would devolve into an autocratic government, one that domineered over the People and crushed individual freedom, one that silenced free speech, spied on and manipulated us, took away religious freedom, destroyed property rights, and turned us into slaves of the state.

They believed each human being was endowed by our Creator with an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Not equity. Equal right to opportunity.

They believed in a judicial system in which the accused is innocent until proven guilty, where every person has a right to a fair and impartial trial—just as the People are entitled to fair and impartial elections.

In criminal cases, the prosecution is required to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence presented must be so convincing that no reasonable person could doubt the defendant’s guilt.

We have all heard the Miranda warning. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that police must read criminal suspects their rights.

You have the right to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

You have the right to an attorney.

If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. 

Today, we have come to a fork in the road. We all have the right to remain silent. But we must ask ourselves, “Can I in good conscience take the silent pathway?”

The four-sentence Miranda warning also contains seven critical words. “You have a right to an attorney.”

When President Trump called for advice about the electoral process, John Eastman answered his commander in chief’s call. In that moment, he became a target of progressive lawfare.

 If anyone has doubts as to whether our system of government is under attack, John’s story closes the door on those doubts.

Before 2020 election he was a nationally renowned professor of law and community service. He was dean of his law school, an expert in constitutional law. John had earned a Ph.D. in government and his JD, Juris Doctor, degree to practice law, the highest degree you can achieve in law, and he had earned it at the esteemed University of Chicago Law School. 

Then 2020 happened, and John Eastman defended the President of the United States. The President had a right to an attorney just as everyone sitting in this room has a right to an attorney, and it was John’s duty to represent the accused.

Since then, John has been criminally indicted, his bank de-banked him, and he’s been recommended for disbarment. Still, John is undeterred. His standing here today is evidence that he has chosen not to remain silent.

As you’ll hear from John, he’s more convinced than ever that the rule of law and election integrity are under assault.

Attorney Marc Elias put in a nutshell recently when he proudly proclaimed the progressive MAGA strategy: Make Attorneys Get Attorneys

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce tonight’s speaker on the topic “Lawfare in America: The War on Election Integrity. Stand Now or Forever Bow.” I present to you the honorable, the remarkable Dr. John C. Eastman.

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By Patrice Johnson

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