Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely by Tom Reynolds
While writing Tuesday’s Email to SCOPE members, the Biden administration was busy putting an exclamation point on it. I wrote about how Biden and the Swamp could use the big increase in I.R.S. staffing to harass and intimidate their opponents, especially gun owners. At that same time, the F.B.I. was invading the Florida home of former president Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Commentators on TV have been busy spouting theories about why it happened. But it wasn’t about unequal justice or classified documents. It was a raw message from the D.C. Swamp and the Democrat Party that you had better not mess with them because even a former president is not safe from retribution. The denizens of the D.C. Swamp can and will use the power of the government to try to destroy anyone who dares oppose them!
Since Trump was elected by the people of the United States, there has been a never-ending attempt to overturn the will of the people and remove him from office and to use the power of the federal government to punish him and anyone who dared to work with him. Punishment started with General Michael Flynn and George Popodopoulos and was capped by the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Compare that to the treatment of Obama officials, Hillary Clinton’s emails, Biden’s son Hunter or the rioters in major cities.
Our Founding fathers knew that big government was the enemy of rights and freedom. The founders set up a constitution that only gave the federal government certain powers and built-in checks and balances to restrain the use of that power. And if the Constitution wasn’t clear enough, they added a 10th Amendment to be certain there was no confusion.
A national police force like the F.B.I. scared them. Commentators put all the blame for the Mar-a-Lago raid on the politically appointed heads of the F.B.I. and praise agents who are “just following orders”. Sound familiar? We heard that same excuse about “just following orders” at the Nuremburg trials.
Right here in New York State, we recently had another example of the arrogance of power. An unelected governor, plagued with scandals involving her and her husband and with the cooperation of the Democrat Party has said, in effect, the rulings of the Supreme Court do not apply in NY State, if she doesn’t like those rulings. She and her Democrat cohorts ignored three clear Supreme Court rulings on guns and passed laws flying-in-the-face of those rulings. You don’t like it? Too bad! Sue her.
The founders knew what they were doing. Even before Lord Acton said it, the founders knew: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” irrespective of the race, creed, color or sex of those in power.
The interesting thing is that academia, the media and other supporters of leftist politicians have been aiding and abetting the left. If they had learned from history, they would realize that once absolute power is established, people will lose their usefulness and are discarded. In the play “A Man for All Seasons”, Thomas More described what happens when laws are discarded by those in power: "This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast…and if you cut them down…d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?” Apparently, supporters of these would be tyrants believe they are wind proof.
Many gun owners don’t vote or get involved in politics since they don’t believe the government is coming for their guns. But this is bigger than just gun rights. Politicians may come and go but the Swamp has eternal life and they believe the Constitutional restrictions on legislative, executive and judicial branches don’t apply to them. They will preserve their power, and the perks that go with it, at all costs.
Upcoming elections are usually referred to as the most important in our lifetime, but this coming one certainly is! In an evenly divided country, the left has said that those who oppose them have no rights. If the left gets approval of their actions over the past two years, by being reelected, they will take it as approval to do even more to destroy the Constitution and cement their power. And if conservative candidates should take back control, we the people need to force them to make changes that neuter the Swamp and punish those that used the power of the government to put the American people in fear of their government.
The left has declared war on American values, traditions and the Constitution. But unlike other wars, this one can be won or lost at the ballot box. To win it, we only need to vote.
