John R. Houk
© May 20, 2017
During the Primary/Caucus period of the GOP nomination for
POTUS, I was not a supporter of Donald Trump. My support was behind stalwart
Conservative Senator Ted Cruz. The same Senator dubbed by then candidate Trump
as ly’n Ted. (Man, that annoyed me.)
But much to my then surprise, The Donald won the GOP
nomination. Regardless of my distrust Trump’s Conservative bona fides, I was
hugely amused with the rancorous needling of Leftists with campaign promises
that sent the Left – including the Left Stream Media – into apoplectic
fits of temper tantrums.
AND SO, I got behind Donald Trump even though the Leftist
MSM was convinced by their polling that there was no way that Crooked Hillary
could be beaten in the 2016 election.
AND THEN the Trump revolution had manifested. The American
voters in a majority of States thumbed their noses at the Leftist MSM as The
Donald became President Elect on election night 2016.
That is when ALL H – E – Double Hockey Sticks
broke out among the Leftist Dems who were certain the continuation of the
dismantling of our American Constitution to transform our nation into a godless
Big Brother State would continue with Crooked Hillary after the corrupt
President Obama left Office.
With that in mind, I just read a fascinating essay that I
believe rings very true by James Downton at The Federalist. Downton
believes a coup d’état began to dismantle Trump’s Administration and came under
attack even before he took his oath of Office as President of the United States
of America. A coup that as yet has no defined leader but rather is perpetrated
by what many call the Fourth Estate of our government – Federal Bureaucracy. In
case you are unaware or didn’t pay attention in High School, the Federal Bureaucracy
has ZERO standing in the U.S. Constitution as an independent Branch of the
Federal Government. This Federal Bureaucracy stretches among the three
Constitutional Branches of government; viz., Executive, Legislative and
Judicial.
Here’s a tease from Downton’s:
Arguably, what has been
branded as “The Resistance” — but in actuality is the totalitarian might of the
administrative state and their partisan allies — began with the Democratic
Party’s scorched-earth campaign against the political nominations of the Trump
White House. But beyond the partisan rancor of the legitimate and often
frustrating nomination process, more sinister forces were at work.
JRH 5/20/17
***************
We Are Watching A
Slow-Motion Coup D’etat
This coup d’etat
is not only about President Trump. It represents not the rule of one man or
even many, but by the multitude of our elites.
MAY 19, 2017
It’s nearly incontrovertible
that a slow-motion coup d’etat is now taking place. Since November 9, 2016,
forces within the U.S. government, media, and partisan opposition have aligned
to overthrow the Electoral College winner, Donald Trump.
To achieve this they have
undermined the institutions of the Fourth Estate, the bureaucratic apparatus of
the U.S. government, and the very nature of a contentious yet affable two-party
political system. Unlike the coup d’etat that sees a military or popular figure
lead a minority resistance or majority force into power over the legitimate
government, this coup d’etat is leaderless and exposes some of the deepest
fissures in our system of government. This coup d’etat represents not the rule
of one man or even many, but by the multitude of our elites.
This article outlines the
mechanisms, institutions, and nature of this coup d’etat; not in defense of
President Donald Trump — who has proven himself bereft of the temperament of a
successful president — but in defense of the institutions of our republic that
are now not just threatened, but may very well be on the verge of collapse.
‘1984’ Is An Apt
Comparison, But Not As the Left Thinks
Shortly after the
inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, a sort
of “meme” appeared among activists on the political left comparing the status
of the United States to that of George Orwell’s “1984.” “Think pieces”
from The New Yorker, CNN, The Atlantic, and Salon drew comparisons
between President Trump and the brutally authoritarian future Orwell
envisioned. In April of this year, screenings of the film version of Orwell’s
dystopian novel were hosted around the world.
“1984” surged up Amazon’s bestseller list. The tragedy of this exercise was
that the comparison was very apt, but for different reasons.
The villain of “1984” isn’t a
“man” but an entity — a bureaucracy with an authoritarian impulse. Big Brother
isn’t so much a man or a leader but a symbol of the omnipotent reach of the
bureaucratic state that dominated the dystopian future. The fear of an elected
leader turning into a tyrant — as the political Left and some on the political
Right feared in Trump — doesn’t play into the narrative of the novel. Rather,
it is the fear of a nearly faceless administrative state; a state that has
achieved a near totality in terms of tyranny.
This fear of the
administrative state was a key feature among at least two individuals writing
at the Claremont Review of Books, Publius Decius Mus and professor
Angelo Codevilla. Decius’s “The Flight 93 Election” essay acted as a sort of
rallying cry for some conservatives and small-“r” republican intellectuals
against the very real fear that a Hillary Clinton victory would cement the
totalizing power of the administrative state — that is career bureaucrats and
administrators who view the virtues of the republic as something to be washed
away and remade in their own “progressive” image. Decius writes:
If
conservatives are right about the importance of virtue, morality, religious
faith, stability, character and so on in the individual; if they are right
about sexual morality or what came to be termed “family values”; if they are
right about the importance of education to inculcate good character and to
teach the fundamentals that have defined knowledge in the West for millennia;
if they are right about societal norms and public order; if they are right
about the centrality of initiative, enterprise, industry, and thrift to a sound
economy and a healthy society; if they are right about the soul-sapping effects
of paternalistic Big Government and its cannibalization of civil society and
religious institutions; if they are right about the necessity of a strong
defense and prudent statesmanship in the international sphere—if they are right
about the importance of all this to national health and even survival, then
they must believe—mustn’t they?—that we are headed off a cliff.
For Decius, Trump represents
the final option to head off the transformation of the American republic into
an administrative state where bureaucrats would wield an immutable regulatory
dictatorship over the American citizenry.
Codevilla, prescient, went a step
further and surmised that the republic was already dead; the Caesarism of an
imperial presidency had already usurped it:
Electing
either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump cannot change that trajectory. Because
each candidate represents constituencies hostile to republicanism, each in its
own way, these individuals are not what this election is about. This election
is about whether the Democratic Party, the ruling class’s enforcer, will impose
its tastes more strongly and arbitrarily than ever, or whether constituencies
opposed to that rule will get some ill-defined chance to strike back.
Regardless of the election’s outcome, the republic established by America’s
Founders is probably gone. But since the Democratic Party’s constituencies
differ radically from their opponents’, and since the character of imperial
governance depends inherently on the emperor, the election’s result will make a
big difference in our lives.
If asked at the time of
authorship, one doubts either man could have predicted the swiftness in which
the administrative state would be able to consolidate power and isolate the
presidency. Yet that is what has exactly occurred. With the aid of the media
and the Democratic Party, the institutions of the republic are crippled, the
levers of power having been seized not by the elected but by the unelected
bureaucratic state — from ideologues at the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to the partisans and paranoid who inhabit our intelligence community.
The Administrative State
Versus the American People
Arguably, what has been
branded as “The Resistance” — but in actuality is the totalitarian might of the
administrative state and their partisan allies — began with the Democratic
Party’s scorched-earth campaign against the political nominations of the Trump
White House. But beyond the partisan rancor of the legitimate and often
frustrating nomination process, more sinister forces were at work.
Mother Jones, unwittingly, sheds light onto the mindset of the administrative state in
a piece detailing the resistance of EPA bureaucrats. An anonymous and unelected
government employee wrote to Mother Jones laying out a lengthy
argument justifying his or her resistance to reforms by EPA Administrator Scott
Pruitt and objection to directives from the White House:
What
type of nation are we when we allow our leaders to sign into law a rule that
makes it EASIER for mining companies to pollute local waterways? These same
politicians will try to convince their voters that making it easier to pollute
local streams is somehow good for them… [The
anti-democratic notion that careerists at the EPA have a greater authority than
the will of the people and their elected representatives is astounding and
stands against concept of a representative republic]
Here
in the US, those of us who work to protect the environment and human health
from corporate pollution are lucky enough that we do not live under the specter
of murder. We are, however, acutely aware that the forces behind these heinous
crimes against environmental activists abroad are the same forces that are
working against us in the US today. And make no mistake: These forces are
poised to grow even stronger…
..Will
the capture of EPA by corporate interests be swept up in all the other
horrifying news of the day or week? Or will the public finally decide that it
is not acceptable to allow EPA, the only agency with a mission dedicated to
protecting the environment, to be systematically dismantled, allowing those at
the top to further concentrate wealth and power among themselves? Despite the
long odds we face, we will never stop working to protect every person’s right
to have a healthy place to live, work, and play. And if the new administrator
casts me out of the job I love, I will not stop working toward the principles
that have always animated my life. This is who I am, and that will never
change. I stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters that work to protect
human rights, human health, and the environment here in the US and all over the
world. The struggle continues.
This is not the words of a
dutiful civil servant but of a partisan tyrant who would see his own view, his
own agenda, and his own lens of politics dominate over that of the elected
government of the United States. In their minds they are but a guardian of the
people, albeit one that must stand up to and ultimately negate the will of that
very same people. Were the United States governed by a different political
system, this view of the role of the unelected and their duty to act as
sovereign over the people might even be admirable, but that is not a republican
system.
Which Side Is Really
Treasonous?
Complicit with the
authoritarian nature of the administrative state is factions within the United
States intelligence community both inside and outside the White House. They
have engaged in a campaign of selective leaks and plots to undermine the
president of the United States and weave a media narrative of Russian
influence, conspiracy, and now obstruction of justice. With their media allies,
they have leaked information and intelligence that — while lacking any actual
criminal element — has allowed a narrative to arise that casts a dark shadow
over the White House and those who live and work in it.
A narrative comprised of the
Russian government “hacking” the presidential election, collusion between the
Trump campaign and the Russian government, and Trump being compromised by the
Russian government dominated the media before the final votes of the election
were even tallied. Skepticism was suspended for what can only be described as a
concerted effort to undermine the elected president of the United States.
Shortly after the
inauguration, this narrative escalated via select leaks — and was admirably
exacerbated by White House actions. We now face a crisis over a fired director
of the FBI, with current and retired officials spinning stories to the media
with little basis other than the whispers of anonymous sources.
We are told that President
Trump demanded a loyalty oath from FBI Director James Comey, demanded Comey
drop the FBI investigation into the foreign connections of Gen. Michael Flynn,
and that this constitutes obstruction of justice and, in the most hysterical
cases, that this among other offenses even constitutes treason.
Yet in all of this we have
yet to see the purported Comey memo detailing some of these moments — although
from the media treatment it is understandable that many would constitute the
media reports as truth. The meeting between President Trump and the Russian
foreign minister has resulted in a similar tale of collusion and gross breach
of intelligence tradecraft, with Trump’s national security advisor and the
secretary of State, both present for the meeting, have both denied.
The Media Slips Loose the
Dogs of War
In all of this, the media has
abandoned their role as watchdogs with a healthy dose of skepticism and become
the propaganda arm of the unelected administrative state, complicit in and even
cheering on the actions that have superseded the will of the people. A cursory
glance at the social media feeds of most Washington DC-based press more than
illustrates this.
Bolstered by their partisan
allies, the media has acted as a beachhead for the assault on the Trump
administration. Partisan organizations like Media Matters for America have
helped to provide ammunition to the media and pour fuel on the fires of
resistance among partisan activists. Eric Boehlert, a former journalist and now
a writer at Media Matters, tweeted, following the revelation of a possible memo
from Comey: “Trump obstructed justice THREE WEEKS INTO HIS FIRST TERM”
Boehlert provides no actual
evidence of obstruction of justice. Rather, he runs with an intentional media
narrative that the mere whisper, the idea, is in-and-of-itself proof that
obstruction occurred. Thus Boehlert is affirmative in his tweet, not
speculative. Because the administrative state, the progressive political
partisans, and the media oppose the Trump administration, any whiff of
maleficence is treated as the Gospel Truth.
Boehlert’s follow-up tweets
provide insight into the mindset that has taken over our media and political
institutions. “Comey’s firing signaled the end for Trump; he upset forces that
were unseen to him. [sic] and now they’re exacting revenge…..as they should”
This should be a disturbing
revelation, even one coming from a mind so addled and partisan as Boehlert’s.
Justice, properly pursued, is a good end, but what Boehlert is cheering on is
the revenge of a man who was legally and constitutionally fired. This is the
partisan nature of the administrative state revealed. Partisans of the
political Left cheering on bureaucrats to help create a narrative and the
appearance of malfeasance where there has yet to be any evidence of such.
Boehlert continues: “ftr,
these leaks are unusual: Mon, WP got scoop then quickly lots of reporters
filled in. today, NYT, then lots of reporters filled in.”
“ie.e. this is a quality
roll-out. Q: will there be another tomorrow?”
“after today, how does he not
apt special prosecutor??”
These series of tweets
illustrate the broader problem of collusion between the various elements of the
partisan Left, the media, and the administrative state. The attack on Trump
from within and without is coordinated and purposefully geared to make a lack
of evidence seem like a mountain of evidence and be as damning as possible,
although what it truly amounts to is a paper tiger. With the administrative
state leaking and the partisans giving context, the media gins up a plot that
declares Trump guilty of crimes of which there is no concrete evidence he
committed. This is how you build the consensus behind a coup d’etat.
A Smear Production Factory
One only need look at the
case of Sebastian Gorka to see just how far and how petty the media has gone to
act as the enforcer of the administrative state. Some in the intelligence
community and partisan bureaucracy viewed Gorka unfavorably, resulting in an
organized campaign in the press against him.
The magazine Forward began running poorly sourced articles tying
Gorka to a Hungarian order of merit called the Vitézi Rend, which, during World
War II, had factions that supported the Hungarian dictator Horthy, the Imperial
House of Habsburg, and the Nazi party. Despite no clear evidence, Forward labeled
Gorka, in essence, a Nazi. The media ran with that narrative, bolstered by
activist campaigns by partisans of the Democratic Party and those opposed to
Gorka in the intelligence community.
In truth, the real objection
to Gorka was his view of Islam as a civilizational confrontation and of radical
Islam as a hostile force against the West. There as yet remains no evidence of
Gorka or his father being tied to the Nazi party in any way — yet that did not
stop journalists from surmising on social media that Gorka’s immigration to the
United States and status as a U.S. citizen should have been blocked and should
be revoked.
The scale of the
administrative state and its allies’ war against the duly elected government of
the United States should be startling. The media should be an institution of
skepticism and concern for this usurpation, yet they have chosen to be
complicit. In this, Codevilla is correct. We have emerged into a new system of
government, though perhaps not truly an imperial one.
Whereas some continue to try
and enforce republican values and norms, a large swath of what administers the
government of our nation has chosen to embody the Roman dictator Sulla — in the
form of a multitude of bureaucrats and careerists; a dictatorial court without
an emperor to bring them to heel.
We may already be past the
point of no return. Some in the White House made it a point to seek dismantling
the administrative state, but it appears the administrative state is more than
capable of fighting back and seizing additional power through leaks, obstinacy,
and partisan rancor — ensuring its survival and propelling what can only be
described as a coup d’etat.
James
Downton is the pen name of a Federalist contributor who is contractually
prohibited from writing publicly about politics under his real name.
______________________
Fourth Estate Coup D’état
Against U.S.A.
John R. Houk
© May 20, 2017
_____________________
We Are Watching A Slow-Motion Coup D’etat
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