Attorney General William Barr has stated that prosecutors should charge protesters with sedition. For those that don’t know, sedition is defined as conduct of speech inciting people to rebel against the state or monarch. Proving sedition would be almost impossible, but conviction is not Barr’s intention.
His intention is to put fear into the population. If people are afraid of being federally charged with a felony, they may think twice about protesting in the first place. Barr does not believe in a democracy built on freedom of speech.
Barr has long believed that the President should be a monarch. He has, wrongfully, stated that the founding fathers intended for the President to have almost monarchical powers. This is so far from the truth to be laughable.
Our founding fathers had just fought a war of independence from a tyrannical monarch. The last thing they wanted was to establish another one on our own shores. The Constitution of the United States actually originally set up a far more weakened executive branch than what we are used to in modern times.
Over the decades, Presidents have asserted more and more authority. Congress, and the Supreme Court, has allowed it to happen. Barr would take it further.
The Constitution gives the power of the purse, and the power to wage war, to Congress. The belief is that a deliberative body made up of many minds would give the deep thought required before sending our nations sons, and now daughters, off to fight and die. Our budget is decided by Congress as well. The President is required to ask for what he wants. In William Barr’s America, the President would have the sole right to make all these decisions.
In Barr’s America, as well, there is the belief that antifa is a well-organized plot to overthrow America. This is the basis for his desire to have sedition charges filed against protesters. If antifa is a tight-knit organization, the Trump administration can try to justify the Gestapo tactics used by various local and federal police agencies against demonstrators.
What is scarier still, in Barr’s America, the DOJ’s function is to serve as the personal attorneys and police force of the President. This would include prosecuting (read: persecuting) Trump’s political enemies. Barr is currently trying to have his DOJ take over the defense of Donald Trump in a personal defamation suit filed by an alleged rape victim. Our tax dollars would be paying to defend the President in personal cases.
The GOP-led Senate seems to agree with Attorney General Barr. As we speak, Republicans in Congress are beginning to issue subpoenas to investigate the FBI probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign. Never mind that the probe has already been cleared of wrong doing.
But, if left unchecked, Trump, and his lickspittle William Barr, would make police protection conditional on the obedience of the local community. Trump, and Barr, would also take federal funds from any state he does not consider respectful to his presidency (read: voted for him).
Be afraid. Be very afraid.