Law by plebicite

It should come as no surprise that after years of being told that their children were in mortal danger of being killed by terrrrrorists and that brutal torture of likely innocent men was the only way to keep them safe from the scourge of Islamo-fascism… a slight (50-46) majority of Americans polled recently believe that the use of such torture was justified.
Naturally, this is given as an explanation of why the Obama Administration will tread lightly on complying with its own obligations at law (and by treaty) to thoroughly investigate official wrongdoing… although politicians will feel free to ignore the fact that the majority of Americans favor single payer health coverage, actual progressive taxation, and lots of other things that the Beltway Wise-persons and Village Elders tut tut and tell us we can’t have. And as to polling, we won’t talk about what percentage of Americans believe in the Rapture (and I mean later this year) or angels or fairies and leprechauns vs. don’t believe in evolution, global warming or that the Earth is round… it would be close to those willing to say torture is justified. And unsurprisingly, the pro-authority Republicans overwhelmingly favor the torture.
But this is irrelevant: the conduct at issue, whether “justified” or not, was illegal, and therefore, the first principle of “no one is above the law” is the issue. No matter how much Americans love their rich and powerful White men.