(Trouble In “River City”!)

MARCH 31, 2023 BY ELIZABETH STAUFFER at Power Line:

LEVIN: ‘AMERICA, YOU ARE LOOKING TYRANNY IN THE FACE RIGHT NOW’

What happens when those tasked with enforcing the law are the biggest thugs of all?

This is not a rhetorical question. It is now obvious that the federal government has become hopelessly corrupt. A deliberate campaign to weaponize government agencies against political foes began during the Obama administration and accelerated when President Joe Biden took office.

The targeting of conservative groups by the IRS between 2010 and 2012 gave us the first clue that something was afoot.

Next came the spectacular leak of highly classified National Security Agency material by former CIA agent and computer security consultant Edward Snowden in 2013. The documents, revealed by independent journalist Glenn Greenwald, showed how significantly the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program, initiated following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, had been ratcheted up by the Obama administration.

Greenwald delivered a memorable and hard-hitting speech at the University of Utah in April 2015 titled “Edward Snowden and the Secrets of the National Security State.” His remarks focused on the National Security Agency’s collection of ordinary law-abiding U.S. citizens’ communications. He emphasized that, even then, nearly eight years ago, people had ceded too much of their independence to unaccountable bureaucrats without even realizing it. If that trend continued, he argued, America would soon be closer to a totalitarian state than a democracy.

He was right.

While politics has always been a scrappy arena, former President Donald Trump has radicalized Democrats and brought them to a level of derangement that few could have imagined. The full-court press to ruin Trump began the moment he descended the golden escalator to announce his candidacy in June 2015 and continues to this day. 

It started with the Russiagate hoax, which was manufactured by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and carried out by the top ranks of the FBI and DOJ. The FBI falsified information on a FISA court warrant application in order to spy on Trump’s campaign, pushed the debunked Steele dossier as fact knowing full well that its sourcing was bogus, and openly boasted about trying to stop Trump from becoming president.

The same folks who brought us the Trump-Russia collusion hoax and two needless impeachments refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information, allegedly covered up crimes committed by Hunter Biden, declined to prosecute illegal protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices, and turned a blind eye to violent attacks against pro-life organizations and pregnancy centers.

Consider the targeting and detention of those who trespassed in the Capitol building during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, or the dramatic arrest by an FBI SWAT team of a Catholic priest in front of his frightened wife and seven young children for pushing back against a thug who had harassed his 12-year-old son during a peaceful protest outside a Pennsylvania abortion clinic in 2021. We can add Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo smearing concerned parents who spoke out at local school board meetings as domestic threats and the FBI’s unprecedented raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence three months ahead of the midterm elections to the list.

The “Twitter Files” have revealed a level of corruption most people never dreamed they’d see, culminating in an intentional effort by Democrats, the FBI, Big Tech, and the media to influence the results of a U.S. presidential election.

This brings us to perhaps the most transparently political act of all: New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump for a hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. The alleged affair, which Trump denies, is said to have occurred in 2007.

Both federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and the Federal Election Commission passed on bringing charges in this case due to its weakness.

Bragg’s decision to indict the former and possibly future president is a gross abuse of power. It smacks of political maneuvering. The use of the legal system to persecute political foes is evidence of the asymmetrical application of the law. 

Equal application of the law is the single most essential feature of a democratic republic. Without it, a nation cannot call itself a democracy. 

We’re witnessing the death of the rule of law in America. Suddenly, Greenwald’s words from eight years ago sound more prescient than hyperbolic. We are closer to a totalitarian state than a democratic republic.

Mark Levin weighed in on the news of Trump’s indictment on Fox News’ “Hannity” last night. He said: “This is a full-on assault on the Republican party, against Trump, it will be against other Republicans if they get away with this. The precedent has now been set. They have crossed the Rubicon into tyranny!

“America, you are looking tyranny in the face right now.”

Sadly, it’s true.