Americans of almost every political stripe agree that weaponizing the government against political opponents is ethically abhorrent and legally dubious. The effects of government weaponization sow distrust in our system of governance and our elected officials and open the doors of opportunity for adversaries, both foreign and domestic.
We witnessed first-hand the weaponization of the federal government under the Biden administration. Pro-life Americans were targeted for their views against the murder of unborn children; concerned parents were equated to domestic terrorists and faced the wrath of the federal government because of it; the fossil fuel industry became a political target; and now we’ve learned from Operation Arctic Frost revelations that hundreds of Republican lawmakers, activists, and operatives faced sprawling federal investigations signed off by the Biden administration brass.
These instances of government weaponization are just a few examples from a single administration. How are Americans to trust their government when its investigative, regulatory, and enforcement powers are bent against them or their fellow citizens? That demolition of trust was only compounded by the excuses and dodges offered by the Biden and Obama administrations for their actions, as well as by the legacy media’s complete disregard of their ethical fumbles. The distrust of the federal government and law enforcement is cynically compounded by partisan actors to further villainize law enforcement and federal officials.
The long-term effects on the health of our nation are much, much worse. When the government is weaponized by any political party or elected official, it opens Pandora’s box of ramifications. The unspoken rule of keeping law enforcement apolitical is removed from the equation, and trust in our government as a whole dwindles. Federal agents cease being neutral arbiters of the law and begin their reign as political stooges, prioritizing agendas over Americans. Worst, shady politicians know they can use these federal apparatuses for their own goals when they see this behavior and will wait in the wings for their opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
Just take a look at the cadre of career bureaucrats fighting our voters’ national mandate at the beginning of the Trump administration by attacking policy directives through anonymous letters and stoking political tensions with accusations of fascism. These individuals do not view themselves as public servants, but rather as intellectual superiors to the American people, whom they believe don’t know better. As such, these unelected bureaucrats come to see only one political party as legitimate and act accordingly. This is why we see government weaponization coming in more mundane forms like the exploitation of permitting systems to punish political enemies to more radical pushes to achieve what legislation and fair play cannot.
With these facts in mind, it is easy to see how Americans, especially nowadays, have little trust in their federal government.
The Arctic Frost revelations only solidified what we all knew: that the federal government was working for special interests and unelected bureaucrats, not the American citizen. Outside of true criminal instances and prominent legal issues, mobilizing the FBI against private citizens and opposing candidates for personal political success is a bridge relatively uncrossed in American politics, in general. In the modern era, it’s an act that will quickly make you persona non grata in Washingtonian circles. Additionally, the brazenness of the FBI, intelligence community, and political operatives did not help the overall sales pitch on everything being peachy keen amid the law enforcement operations.
Unfortunately, the consequences of the Biden administration’s weaponization of government are already taking hold as some Americans no longer view people in the government as their fellow citizens, but rather as the enemy. Americans in some states are physically attacking federal immigration enforcement officers who are doing their jobs, including but not limited to an ambush attack on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas. That’s not to mention the Antifa attacks on federal agents in cities like Portland, Oregon, which are overrun with the domestic terrorists.
Meanwhile, these same individuals stood idly by when the Biden-era FBI targeted conservative Americans. That should tell you a lot about them and the ideology to which they subscribe. This madness only stops when elected officials choose to end it, or they are replaced with successors who make the decision to end it.
Perhaps this was an unintended consequence of government weaponization by the Biden administration. But the weaponization of the government coupled with individuals on one side of the political aisle hammering on reductio ad Hitlerum arguments against political opponents has infected too many of our neighbors with the friend-enemy distinction for it to be anything but deliberate.
But, with this political Pandora’s box open, the question isn’t when that happens, but if it does.
Houston Keene joined Democracy Restored after a career working in Congress and as a nationally syndicated journalist covering politics, including the executive branch and government ethics. Houston was born in Austin, Texas, and is a proud father, husband, and Baylor Bear.