The Weaponization of the Federal Bureaucracy

Upon the heels of the scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service where conservative groups were specifically targeted before the 2012 elections comes this story from the Washington Times discussing the current movement on the part of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to intimidate banks by discouraging the giving of lines of credit, freezing assets, and prohibiting online sales of federally licensed firearms dealers. The FDIC is listing gun dealers as high risk in the category of porn stores and drug paraphernalia shops. An interesting comparison, involving as it does the legal sale of a product guaranteed to the public under the Constitution. The current administration, of course, has expressed its dissatisfaction with that particular institutional document which the president ostentatiously swore an oath to upon his inauguration. This move has gone hand in hand with Justice Department launching Operation Choke Point, a credit card fraud probe focusing on banks and payment processors. This added pressure has led many banks to cut ties with gun retailers no matter the status of their licenses or credit history. The involvement of the Justice Department in this effort is almost a sick joke when considering their hand in Operation Fast and Furious, where they walked thousands of guns to Mexican drug lords that resulted in hundreds of deaths, including at least two federal agents. Eric Holder laughed at the notion of any accountability and holds his contempt of Congress charge as a badge of honor. Fast and Furious featured the DOJ encouraging reluctant licensed gun dealers to go ahead with illegal sales -- the same gun dealers who are now viewed as unsavory businessmen by the federal government actually showed more character and civic responsibility than our government officials.

Consider these efforts by Washington along with the use of the EPA to crush businesses and the order of the Department of Agriculture for several submachine guns to enforce the monitoring of crops as an indication that virtually every bureaucracy of the federal government is being weaponized to attack political, economic and cultural enemies of progressivism and big government. By circumventing the Congress and the voters, the effects of this movement is to steadily eat away at the cultural and political roots of the country. At this rate, with two and half years to the next presidential election, even a change of administration will likely hand the new president a country that was unrecognizable from a just a decade ago. Victor Keith writes from Burbank, California and can be contacted at victorakeith.com