(*SNIFF, SNIFF*) The smell of authoritarianism …
We’re seeing a mighty disturbing trend in our state and nation these days. More and more, our elected leaders are pursuing heavy-handed authoritarian tactics while the people — the voters who empowered them — sit back, say nothing, and appear to accept it.
The raid on President Trump’s Florida residence this week by the FBI was appalling and frightening. All of the allegations tossed at Trump don’t hold a candle to the ethical stink that followed Clinton and Obama out of office. Last time I checked, no one has raided their homes. I saw an interesting Tweet from an incumbent Latin American leader in the wake of the Trump raid. The leader said something to the effect of: “Wow. Imagine what DC would be saying to me if I tried something like this against one of my political opponents.”
Exactly. Since our founding, America has been held to a higher standard. We were the one place where you could speak your mind to power and not have to worry about the secret police raiding your home.
Some people who went to the January 6, 2021 pro-Trump rally in DC have been jailed without charges or bail or trials since that time. Their only “crime” appears to have been standing in the vicinity of The Capitol when some people decided to take an unauthorized tour of the building. We’ve been subjected to 18 months of televised hearings about the events of January 6. (Meanwhile, there have been no hearings nor any arrests related to the multi-city rampages by Black Lives Matter and Antifa across the country during the same period. Those folks support the team in charge in DC. They get a pass.)
Hunter Biden is on tape doing quite a few illegal things. But the FBI and DOJ don’t appear interested. They’re too busy harassing Trump rally attendees and other Republicans who have been nice to Trump.
Remember Hillary Clinton and her “private” email server with all of those classified emails? The DOJ apparently doesn’t. Hillary is now marketing swag that mocks that whole controversy.
The use of executive orders has grown dramatically in recent years. Those are meant to be used in times of true emergency when action needs to be taken prior to the time legislative approval can be achieved.
State and federal authorities went buck wild with executive orders and “emergency powers” when the whole COVID mess came to a head. In Raleigh, the GOP-controlled legislature and the GOP-controlled Council of State gave Democrat Roy Cooper open-ended “emergency powers” to be exercised during the pandemic lockdown. Government gained the power to force businesses to close down for an unlimited period and to make people adhere to a lockdown. The GOP-controlled Council of State even granted Cooper and extension on his “emergency powers.” There was plenty of time for the legislature to examine and approve or reject Cooper’s “emergency powers.” But, inexplicably, that never happened.
Check out all the executive orders — requiring no blessing whatsoever from the legislature — Cooper has issued thus far. Cooper even issued an executive order in the wake of The US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and declaring abortion to be an issue for state legislatures. All of these were done while the legislature could have easily been consulted for approval.
Joe Biden has gone the executive order route on abortion, too. Never mind that whole “it’s in the domain of state legislatures” thingie. Who needs the legislative or judicial branches, or even state governments, for that matter?
Also, in Raleigh, we have so-called “conservatives” going along with the other statists on the installation of GPS trackers in our cars. It’s supposedly to make taxation a lot easier. *No bureaucratic snooping on individuals’ whereabouts. Nothing to see here.*
Way too many people are seeing the political fight as Rs vs. Ds. Actually, it’s statists vs. freedom-lovers. Statists infest both of our major parties. Yes, even the so-called conservative party is infested with people who enjoy bureaucratic power and meddling in other people’s lives.
Stop looking at the R or the D next to the candidate names. In most cases, the letters mean very little. Look at what people stand for. If we keep sending statists back to DC and Raleigh, things will never get better. It won’t be long before we’ll all be standing there, mouths agape, wondering what the hell happened to our state and country.
The FBI has transitioned into the Federal Bureau of Intimidation, the political enforcers of the Democrat Party hierarchy. They are now akin to the Stasi, the old East German secret police or the KGB. I was recently talking with someone who had grown up in the Soviet Union and she told me that the FBI increasingly reminds her of the KGB she feared while growing up. She is very frightened for America’s future and particularly our liberties, saying if this keeps up it will not be long until they start arresting us for our political beliefs.
The FBI has exhibited a disturbingly partisan political behavior over the past few years. I read that there are already calls in Congress to zero out their budget and these certainly seem justified based on their outrageous behavior. It was also very disturbing that the day after the political raid on Trump’s home, three FBI goons accosted Congressman Scott Perry, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, while he was travelling with his family and seized his cell phone.