Commentary
-
Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
The Deep State needs more oversight
When the dust clears on the Speaker’s race, the single most critical role House Republicans will play, beyond stifling the Democrat agenda from the Senate, is in oversight.
And no area more merits more oversight than the Deep State. The Twitter Files have revealed in stunning detail a successful bid by it to manipulate public opinion at mass scale by imposing a censorship regime on all of Big Tech. This scandal—a conspiracy to shackle speech in violation of the First Amendment—deserves a congressional probe to reveal the collusion between myriad government agencies and tech platforms, hold the perpetrators to account, and propose laws to stop it from ever happening again. But this is one scandal among many from our Deep State. Numerous federal agencies have demonstrated a level of politicization and weaponization so deep and widespread that it demands a much more expansive investigation—one that should culminate in a radical restructuring of the entire security apparatus.
Consider just a few of the many areas ripe for investigation – many of which we’ve discussed right here at Straight Arrow News: The Deep State’s inflation of the domestic violent extremist threat—under which it’s equated “MAGA” with “terrorist.”
The FBI’s suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop and seeming unwillingness to pursue related investigations, including into how President Joe might be implicated in corrupt foreign influence-peddling with our worst adversaries—while pursuing, along with DOJ, those who dared to look into Ashley Biden’s diary. The DOJ’s pursuit of parents critical of draconian COVID-19 policies and CRT as terrorists. The unprecedented Mar-a-Lago raid. And the DOJ/FBI’s hyper-political pursuit of Republican members of Congress, state legislators, and numerous others in connection with January 6.
And then there’s Russiagate itself and all of its related scandals, from FISA abuse, to the jihads against Michael Flynn and others, to recent revelations that the Department of Justice was snooping on congressional investigators, trying to get them off the tail of Russiagate.
These are just some of many threads that when pulled, show a national security and law enforcement apparatus willing to use and abuse its awesome powers to target dissenters from prevailing ruling-class orthodoxy and protect its own – pursuing conservatives on the very grounds they refused to pursue the likes of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and others.
The security state is the tip of the spear of a ruling-class war on wrongthink that casts dissenters as terrorists, And aims to silence them by censorship and coercion, or even criminalization.
Some seem to know what time it is. To their credit, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee telegraphed an interest in pursuing many of these scandals in a November 2022 report on FBI and DOJ politicization.
Recently, others in the House have started to come around to the idea of a Church-style Committee – a reference to the 1970s-era investigation into the weaponization and abusive practices of the intelligence apparatus, particularly domestically.
Though not fleshed out, proponents of a new Church Committee would seem to be calling for a panel either under the Judiciary Committee, or that like the Old Church Committee, would cut across jurisdictions as a select committee – and which would be fully empowered to get to the bottom of the Deep State’s abuses, extending far beyond the FBI and DOJ.
House Republicans must commit themselves to exposing the Deep State’s corruption and lawlessness, holding the perps to account, and deterring any such conduct going forward. National security and law enforcement agencies run amok, pose an existential threat to our liberty and justice. As the late, great Angelo Codevilla, who was there at the Church committee, an expert in intelligence community corruption his years serving on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, put it, “America’s Intelligence agencies are the deep state’s deepest part, and the most immediate threat to representative government.”
Codevilla also said, of the intelligence agencies, that “the business they’re in, which involves surveillance, is uniquely dangerous, because surveillance is inherently a political weapon.”
A police state turned on citizens who dare to question the state, armed with the most awesome surveillance powers in the history of mankind, would mean tyranny. Any committee that threatens the Deep State’s power and privilege will face its wrath. Its personnel will face an onslaught from Deep State allies in government and the private sector, and its corporate media stenographers.
Of course that we had a Church Committee decades ago yet find ourselves living through this present era, demonstrates such committees are no panacea. A modern-day Church Committee even if executed to perfection will not alone fix what ails us. But establishing such a committee must be done if we’re to have transparency, without which there can be no accountability, and needed change.
-
Supreme Court threatens free speech rights in Murthy case
The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri, a case concerning government communications with social media companies, and whether those communications amount to censorship. The justices seem opposed to the plaintiff’s arguments that the government’s efforts to combat online misinformation about COVID-19 and U.S. elections constituted censorship. Straight Arrow News contributor Ben…
-
GOP House report exposes Jan. 6 panel and its witnesses
A new GOP House report investigating the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee accuses that committee of partisanship and questions some Jan. 6 witnesses. The report was chiefly authored by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga, who has been accused of giving reconnaissance tours to domestic terrorists the day before the attack itself. Loudermilk says his report is important…
-
US government surveilling Americans’ finances is alarming
A recent report from House Republicans said that financial institutions cooperated with U.S. federal law enforcement while investigating potential or suspected extremists associated with the Jan. 6 attack. The report notes that keywords like “MAGA” and “Trump” were used to help filter through data and identify such persons. Advocates say that these filters were helpful,…
-
With or without Smirnov, Bidens are still corrupt
On Feb. 14, Alexander Smirnov, a key figure in the Republican impeachment inquiries against President Biden, was arrested and charged with lying to the FBI. The Department of Justice alleges that Smirnov’s claims, a key ingredient for much of the GOP investigation, are verifiably false and that Smirnov made those statements knowing that they were…
-
Is the Supreme Court caving on affirmative action?
Months after the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action in college admissions, Chief Justice John Roberts and a majority of justices declined to reconsider whether the updated admissions policy at Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ), one of the nation’s top-ranked high schools, discriminates against Asian Americans. A lower court’s decision supporting…
Latest Opinions
-
Congress wants to curtail secret warrants for Americans’ data
-
X looks to expand journalistic presence, talks with Herridge
-
Biden admin approves $60 million in aid after bridge collapse
-
WSJ marks reporter Evan Gershkovich’s year jailed in Russia
-
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Biden's star-studded NYC fundraiser
Popular Opinions
-
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum.