Thursday, December 31, 2020

Holding officials accountable for their decisions and actions

 

Americans are now faced with the probability that - unless some form of miracle occurs - we're about to be governed by a President who was not legitimately elected to office, but whose party machine stole that office in a barefaced raid on democracy.  Joe Biden is not, and never will be, the freely and fairly elected President of the United States.

That won't stop the authoritarian Establishment, the 'Deep State' as it's often called, from asserting its authority (threadbare and tattered though it may be) over ordinary Americans.  We've seen more than enough of that during the COVID-19 pandemic to know what's coming.  Increasingly, there will be attempts to rule by diktat;  to prescribe, to demand, to insist, and - above all else - to control.  In the end, that's what it's all about:  control, the ability to order people about like digits in a system.

Failure to cooperate will result in punishment, even though it won't be termed 'punishment' as such.  "Oh, you won't play ball with us?  Well, let's see how you get on without your unemployment benefits, or your Social Security check, or your Medicaid.  Sure, you're entitled to them, and you'll get them . . . when we see fit to make them available.  We're not depriving you at all!  How dare you suggest that?  It's just that your payments are somehow 'lost in the system' for a while.  You just have to be patient!  Oh - and to speed up their 'retrieval', perhaps you'd better shut up and play ball, rather than be so vocal in your opposition.  Hadn't you . . . citizen?"

The thing is, as we discussed last week, "all politics is local".  Decisions from higher up have to be implemented on the ground.  That means the officials, bureaucrats and administrators who are charged with actually carrying out official policy - as opposed to setting it - are going to be local, too.  Their names and faces and personal details will be known to at least some people in the areas where they work.  That means they can be held accountable for their actions, and their service to illegitimate 'authority'.

I'm not suggesting some form of vigilante 'justice'.  That's a two-edged sword that almost always backfires on those who use it.  Step outside the law like that, and one's opponents can (and usually will) do precisely the same in response.  No, I'm talking about holding people accountable in the communities where they live.  If a local bureaucrat becomes unbearably officious and domineering towards people, those same people can shun them;  refuse them service in shops and restaurants;  launch verbal attacks on them whenever they see them in public;  ostracize their families;  and so on.  Pretty soon their everyday lives will become intolerable.

I've seen that done in several countries (sadly, often involving physical attacks as well as non-violent opposition).  In particular, the families of law enforcement officers, prison guards and officials, and military personnel have been victimized as an expression of disapproval (to put it mildly) of their breadwinners.  That's tragic, and is indefensible in a democracy - but when democracy is stolen, and honored more in the breach than in the observance, the same thing happens to ethics and morality.  Again, I've seen that far too often to be in any doubt about it.

It's already happening in this country.  Ask police in cities like Portland, or Seattle, or Minneapolis, or anywhere else where cries of "Defund the police!" are being heard.  They're not just verbal.  Police have been physically attacked during riots, and even off-duty have to be very careful not to enter certain areas where they may be recognized, and in some cases have had to take their kids of school due to threats made against them.  Ask police officers who have not been convicted of any offence, but are regarded as guilty by certain segments of public opinion.  Despite their official blamelessness, they've lost their jobs, been hounded out of the communities in which they lived, and in some cases have lost their careers, because no other police force dares hire them for fear of the public backlash that would result.

The extreme left of US politics has embraced targeting individuals as a standard practice.  Very well - let's turn that back on them.  Start making your own lists, and sharing them with people in your area.  Elected and appointed officials who begin to behave like tinpot dictators (from Governors such as Newsom in California, Whitmer in Michigan, Brown in Oregon, Inslee in Washington, Cuomo in New York, etc. all the way down to local bureaucrats and administrators who implement their policies) should be "named and shamed".  If they prove untrustworthy in office, their names should be recorded, so that future opposition to their re-election or reappointment or promotion can be coordinated.

  • If a local judge proves biased and politicized in his or her decisions from the bench, they should not be allowed to stand for election to a more senior judicial position without a fight.
  • If a bureaucrat proves domineering and overbearing, make sure public criticism of his or her wrong actions and attitudes is overwhelming, making it more difficult to promote them.
  • If a law enforcement officer or agency is over-zealous in enforcing unfair and illegitimate regulations, make sure their conduct is openly criticized and meets the pushback it deserves.
  • If a local political party official expresses approval for dictatorial actions and decisions, make sure he or she is never selected to run for higher office.
There are many ways in which public pressure can be applied.  Our enemies are using them daily.  Let's learn from them, and use the same tactics in return.  If a wannabe tinpot dictator meets resistance right from the beginning, in positions of lesser authority, he or she is less likely to think they can get away with murder as they climb the promotion or political ladder to more senior positions.  Their seniors are also more likely to reconsider their support for them.  A 'hot potato' can become too hot to hold - so, rather than try to hold it, they're more likely to abandon it and look for someone less provocative, who'll provoke less public resistance.

There's also the issue of the reaction that undemocratic, dictatorial politicians and bureaucrats may provoke.  Try telling the average local cop in America that he or she is going to have to raid the houses of their neighbors and confiscate all weapons found.  The answer in many parts of the country will be, "Not just no, but HELL, NO!!!"  They know full well that the response to such unconstitutional tyranny will be physical rather than verbal, and they don't want to be the ones to endure it.  That applies even in Democratic Party-controlled states and regions, as evidenced by this news report from 2014 after the passage of more stringent gun control legislation in several states (where, as we noted recently, civil disobedience became a widespread response).

Lord Acton put it well, almost two centuries ago.  Here are a few of his aphorisms that are as true today as they were when he said them.


The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.


Let us be on our guard against such evils;  and let's make a list of those who succumb to them, so that we can resist them.

Peter


6 comments:

David said...

Try telling the average local cop in America that he or she is going to have to raid the houses of their neighbors and confiscate all weapons found. The answer in many parts of the country will be, "Not just no, but HELL, NO!!!"
---
You're far more optimistic than I am. Most cops want to provide for their families and get their pensions, so, whether enthusiastically or not, they'll follow whatever orders they're given.

tweell said...

True, David, but our police want to stay alive to enjoy those paychecks. So far they have not been held to account by conservatives for following orders. Once they start raiding and confiscating that goes away, and they will start getting shot at. The police aren't going to cross that line in most areas. There may be a few incidents in blue areas, once some of them get shot following orders the rest will stand down.

boron said...

sounds all well and good, but in order to accomplish the task, the community needs the media, but the media is on the other side and is, in fact, not just promoting and exacerbating the problem, but a part of the problem itself.

Fredrick said...

The police will have a valid 'red flag' order from a court, and thus are just 'following orders', and counting down to the pension eligability date. The news ones will be selected the same way the first Somali cop in Minneapolis was selected. They'll be quite happy to disarm the law abiding locals.

Aesop said...

The LEO enthusiasm for "just following orders" will be no less than that of any reichspolizei in the Fatherland from 1933-1945, but their enthusiasm may diminish somewhat markedly when their chances of returning home safe and warm each night starts to diminish astronomically, and by random fiat.

As the guys on the little end of government's stick, they're going to feel the brunt of both giving and receiving first, and after the first few get a faceful of community policing, with no similar pressure downward from the top limiting their life expectancy, enforcement will devolve to a series of Monday-morning "Gotcha!" moves against the unlucky or unwary, after the shooting stops, while beat cops turn into 2M Sgt. Schultzes 24/7/365.

The clever ones will start to monkeywrench the system from within, while keeping their official face firmly in place during duty hours.

"I'm shocked! Shocked I say, to discover there is insurgency going on at these premises! Round up the usual suspects!" is ever the wise Vichy Way of doing business.

But what happens won't be vigilantism, Peter. It will be street justice in a dirty war, until Leviathan collapses from the death of a thousand cuts. Some folks think the population isn't built for that, but they're about to find out firsthand how poorly the organs of government are built for it either. We don't have the legions of convoy security folks and heavy MRAPs they're going to need nationwide, when merely having government license plates becomes a death sentence. And the minions of bureaucracy are going to find out in about a week that wherever they live isn't anything like as secure as Baghdad's Green Zone, ever, nor ever could be. The sick call-outs a minute after that epiphany will be biblical, and permanent. the alternative will be heads on pikes on their front lawns, in 3, 2,...

They've spent 240 years ensconced in a cocoon of their utter inarguable invincibility, but they've never had to operate in enemy territory for so much as five minutes since the British burned D.C. in 1814.

The American people, conversely, have been operating in enemy territory since at least 1912, if not far longer, and their ingenuity and perseverance in the enterprise knows no bounds.

My money is on hangings and guillotines before this ends, rather than camps, and collateral damage will be overwhelmingly in one direction. Anything contrary will merely hasten the fall of the illegitimate regime. A fate devoutly to be wished.

So, you tell me, from your shoulder-rubbing with The Machine: How are they going to cope with things when the murder rate skyrockets, and the entire populace is The Enemy?

I'm betting they hand us TPTB's heads on platters by way of apology, and with dispatch, rather than face the music that they've cued up on the jukebox.

Picture Saddam's Iraq, doing what they do.
But this time, in Texas.

They're going to flee the seats of power like scalded baboons, and rue the day they ever sought to gain them by fraud.

At least, the survivors will.

How many of those we allow will depend to a large degree on how much of a sense of humor the average American maintains.

Anecdotally, folks seem to be quietly seething.

That's usually the point in civilization where you get 75M people that act like Col. Tibetts and Gen. Lemay, IMHO.

TCK said...

"I'm not suggesting some form of vigilante 'justice'. That's a two-edged sword that almost always backfires on those who use it. Step outside the law like that, and one's opponents can (and usually will) do precisely the same in response."

SO, true. Why, if we're not careful, the dems might even start sending masked thugs to murder people in the street.

Oh wait.