Dangerous Precedents

It's ironic that the Democrats have become hysterical over Russia's influence on our elections, but seem generally unconcerned about a much deeper and more serious electoral threat than emanates from what many call "the deep state," one of the four constituencies that have worked tireless to destroy the presidency of Donald Trump. As more and more evidence surfaces on the actions of the Obama administration's senior political appointees in the FBI (including, but not limited to James Comey and Andrew McCabe) and our intelligence services (James Clapper comes to mind), it appears that a soft coup was in the works.

James Freeman quotes Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith, a leading #NeverTrumper who now believes that very bad things have happened within the deep state:

In Washington a picture is emerging of an eerie and lack-of-candor railroading of Donald Trump conducted by the likes of James Comey and Andrew McCabe. The abuse of power by government officials who refuse to acknowledge the authority of the duly-elected chief executive is not limited to the FBI. And such abuse has inspired one of the President’s harshest critics to raise an alarm.

Warnings about an out-of-control “deep state” of bureaucrats who resist constitutional political authority have become standard fare in conservative media; this week brings a compelling new addition to the genre from a media outlet on the other end of the ideological spectrum.

Writing in the left-leaning British publication The Guardian, Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith affirms that the improper exercise of executive authority by government officials pursuing their own agendas is not merely a figment of red-state imagination. According to Mr. Goldsmith:

America doesn’t have coups or tanks in the street. But a deep state of sorts exists here and it includes national security bureaucrats who use secretly collected information to shape or curb the actions of elected officials...
Since Trump was elected, unusually sensitive leaks of intelligence information designed to discredit him and his senior leadership have poured forth from current and former intelligence officials in the deep state.

There was a time when good men and women among the Democrats would have stood up and taken action to protect the democracy they all serve. They would have stifled the hysteria within their own party. They would have recognized that a duly-elected president, even one they despise, cannot and should not be attacked from within supposedly nonpartisan government agencies. They would have gotten their friends in the media to investigate thoroughly. They would have said "enough," and come to grips with clear evidence that indicates broad-based corruption fostered by the past Democratic administration.

But the Democrats do nothing, even as irrefutable evidence mounts that there are serious and dangerous precedents that are being established. Do they have so much hubris that they think the deep state could never turn on one of their own? I think they do. Are they so convinced that the media, through a combination of indifference and bias, will protect them from the growing scandal? I think they are. Are they willing to accept a partisan cabal of government bureaucrats who were (and are) trying to unseat a duly-elected president? It appears that way.

Today's Democratic party only cares about a return to power—at any cost and by any means. It does not deserve to lead.