We have grown an alphabet soup of powerful agencies like the FBI, DHS, NSA, DOJ, IRS, etc.
We give them immense powers to arrest and to ruin lives, with scant accountability.
We allow them to operate in clubby secrecy because they tell us we have to.
Why?
When Congress (which supposedly has oversight) subpoenas them, they do not respond. Everyone is afraid to speak critically of them, as the critics might become targets.
What have we created?
This "memo," which documents how the Democrats weaponized the FBI for political purposes, is cause for reflection and reform. Thanks to the "Steele Dossier," a best-selling book about him, and these Intelligence Committee memos, President Trump is riding high. Soon he will take credit for Making America Read Again.
My dad was in law enforcement; I have respect for the rank and file. But these abuses were committed by the entrenched political class of swamp-rat leadership at the FBI and DOJ. Most of them were the result of eight years of Democrat influence, padding the appointed management hallways with hyper-political bureaucrats, all pandering for the promotion attention of what they thought was a certain Hillary Clinton presidential win.
The FBI has 35,000 employees and an $8.4 billion budget. That is $240,000 per employee. They were involved in about 10,000 convictions a year. That cost us $840,000 per conviction — before DOJ prosecution and incarceration costs. We probably spend over $1 million per conviction.
In a nation with the highest percent of its citizens in jail, maybe we ought to rethink this.
We are 4.4 percent of the world’s population and we have 22 percent of the world’s prisoners. If you give government this many agencies, money, and vast and unaccountable powers, more of us will be arrested.
It shouldn’t, but it scares me to write that last paragraph.
The stock market cratered soon after the memo about the FBI and DOJ trying to fix the election came out. It makes us seem, ironically, like Russia or maybe Uganda when entrenched government actors employ dishonest tactics to stay in power.
The hypocrisy of the left saying this memo should not have been released is astounding. Leftists pat themselves on the back with a movie like "The Post," which is about the heroic release of the Pentagon Papers detailing the lies of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations that led us into Vietnam.
Lefties also hated it when J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI surveilled Martin Luther King's affairs and Judge Roy Moore’s intimidation of women as a DA.
Watergate and Iran Contra information was good, according to libs. But when today’s Democrat FBI abuses happen, we shouldn’t expose them?
According to an analysis by The Hill, of the 14 major federal agencies whose employees personally donated to presidential politics, "By the end of September 2016, about $1.9 million, or 95 percent, went to the Democratic nominee’s campaign."
Ninety-four percent of DOJ employee donations were to Hillary. Mueller’s lawyers gave entirely to Hillary and Democrats; one gave $33,000. If you don’t think legal outcomes are based on biases or payback, ask the O.J. jury.
A witness at the Mueller grand jury in Washington D.C. said it looked like a Bernie Sanders rally. These are the people rubber-stamping these indictments.
The reality is that, if you give Ex-FBI Director Mueller $15 million, a big Democrat donor staff, and all our laws-layered-upon-laws in America, he will get 90 percent of us if he wants to. It is like a police officer tailing your car for 1,000 miles: He will eventually find a reason to arrest you.
Neither Hillary nor any political enemy needs to be harassed as a blood sport by this government morass.
The delusional James Comey keeps Tweeting, trying to defend himself.
He said, "Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy," trying somehow to tie Trump to McCarthyism. Weird, because Joe McCarthy ruined countless lives with a witch-hunt about Russia collusion. Who then is really the McCarthy? How could our ex-FBI director be so wrong? Without 35,000 FBI employees covering for him, reality prevails.
Even liberal lawyer Alan Dershowitz says, "Criminalizing political differences hurts democracy." And GOP congressmen are mute as this governmental blunt object is swung.
We must stand up to politically motivated prosecutions. Should America die next week, it would be a shame if the FBI investigation said, "There were no signs of struggle."
Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Why the 'memo' matters — and should scare everyone