Everyone who isn't a Democrat is talking about the coup attempts against Trump; first the fake Russian collusion story and now the fake "whistleblower" story. But the real coup is proceeding apace and has already stolen the freedom guaranteed by the Constitution to we the people.

Starting in the 1930s, politicians began stealthily transferring power from themselves, the elected representatives of we the people, to unelected bureaucrats and judges.

We the people can't get rid of bureaucrats or judges via elections, so they can operate without our consent with impunity. To get rid of them requires a significant majority of honest politicians in Congress, which hasn't been manifest for quite some time.

The politicians say the depredations of the administrators and the dishonest judges are not their, the politicians', fault, so they mislead voters into re-electing the very politicians who refuse to punish administrators and judges who violate their oath of office.

Much has been written about the rise of the administrative state, but the simple reality is that most of the rules and edicts from Washington that we the people have to follow aren't voted on or approved by the people we elect. Rather, they're ushered in by nameless and faceless government employees.

Year after year, politicians have passed laws that gave administrators essentially carte blanche to rule over we the people as they will. For example, the infamous HHS mandate that Obama's administrative state used force Catholic nuns to cooperate in providing abortions was never voted on by Congress. Rather, Congress gave the administrative state the power to work out all the details.

The bureaucrats who wield this power over we the people are paid more than the average American, and they have nearly 100% job security. Look at Lois Lerner. She admitted that people under her authority used the IRS to attack Obama's political opponents. Yet when she finally resigned, she got a great pension and a bonus!

They are a ruling class detached from we the people living in one big enclave, the D.C. bubble, and mingling mostly with their own kind. They neither know or care about what life is like for real Americans who aren't paid exorbitant salaries and who don't enjoy perpetual job security.

Yet they firmly believe that they have not only the wisdom, but the right to rule over us. No matter how bad the consequences of their actions are, they go unpunished, so there is absolutely no reason for them to actually care about what we the people want.

The power they have has been given to them by politicians so the politicians can't be blamed for what is done to we the people.

As far as anyone can tell, this administrative state, also known as the swamp, isn't constrained by anything since even the Supreme Court has ruled that courts should defer to the rulings of the administrators because those administrators supposedly have arcane wisdom denied to judges.

They don't even follow the president's orders, even though he's their boss, if they don't agree with them. Instead of resigning, they simply refuse to comply with orders from Trump, and they ignore congressional authority as well.

As we're now learning, they have no compunction about using their power to nullify the votes of we the people, most obviously in their attempt to overturn the 2016 election, which clearly shows that their loyalty is to themselves, not the Constitution.

They are a fascist fifth column in America that is slowly but surely ensuring that we the people have no say in how our country is run. But they are actually less destructive than the dishonest judges whom politicians have empowered to legislate from the bench.

The entire Democrat social agenda, from abortion for any reason at any time in a pregnancy to redefining marriage, hasn't been put in place the old-fashioned way, by our representatives voting. Instead, edicts from on high have come from our "betters" on the Supreme Court that simply declare that pretty much everything the Left wants — from redefining fees to taxes to ensuring that the guilty can walk free based on technicalities — is found hiding in the Constitution.

These dishonest judges even talk about the "living" Constitution, which is a dog whistle for "dishonest judges can say the Constitution supports everything Democrats want."

There is a well-established way to amend the Constitution. But to use it, it's necessary to get the support of the American people. Dishonest judges, all leftists, eschew that, since they know they can't get the majority of Americans to support what they want. It's not an accident that Roe v. Wade overturned the laws of all 50 states or that the redefinition of marriage nullified the votes of around 51,000,000 Americans. Clearly, no attempt to actually amend the Constitution to legalize abortion for any reason at any point in a pregnancy or to redefine marriage would have ever passed with that sort of opposition.

Yet dishonest judges like the notorious RBG are perfectly comfortable imposing their personal ideologies on we the people under the guise of interpreting the Constitution. They have that power because the politicians refuse to rein in the Supreme Court when it legislates.

Democrats have always opposed reining in the Court since the Court was stocked with leftists who imposed the Democrats' ideology on America without the need to actually convince we the people of anything.

We're seeing some change in that attitude as the prospect of a court with a majority of honest judges appears to be a possibility. But even now, Democrats aren't calling for limiting the authority of the Court. Instead, they talk about packing the Court so that whatever party controls the Senate can turn the Court into nothing more than a rubber stamp for that party's ideology.

The Constitution assumed three co-equal branches of government, with the Judiciary being weak, since all it could do is interpret the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress. But because politicians let them, judges don't hesitate to create new laws and require we the people to follow them.

The only way to overrule these tyrants is by amending the Constitution, which is very difficult, or by impeaching the dishonest judges, which, with honest politicians being in the minority in the Senate, is effectively impossible. Dishonest Supreme Court judges can change the law of the land with a stroke of the pen, but to undo the evil that they do requires years and the support of a supermajority of Americans or an honest Senate.

With that sort of effectively unchecked power, is it surprising that we the people now live in a country where it's not a crime to kill an unborn child, but it is a crime to refuse to serve a gay "wedding."

We live in a country where a farmer can be sent to prison for creating ponds on his land to use in case of fires but where a killer's conviction can be overturned because a court clerk accidently put the wrong date on a search warrant.

The coup attempts against Trump are horrible, and they show just how out of control the administrative state is but they are small potatoes compared to the freedoms we've already lost due to the slow, steady, and silent transfer of power from the people we elect to the people who rule over us.

You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.