Enemies Of The State--A New Badge Of Honor?
How many conservatives have proudly embraced the title of "deplorable"? Now a NYT reporter, Katie Benner (she covers DoJ) has pinned the title "Enemies of the state" on Trump supporters. Via TGP :
Benner uses phraseology that seems to me to have a totalitarian ring to it. How often in history have you heard Americans speak of other Americans as "enemies of the state?" In point of fact, Americans view themselves as citizens of a constitutional republic--despite progressive developments in US politics over the past century or more. The notion of being subjects of "the State", the reference to the federal government or the constitutional order of the US as "the State", is normally reserved for persons dominated by an authoritarian government that exercises total top-down control. Certainly in my 30 year career in federal LE I never viewed myself as an agent of "the State." In America "the state" is normally understood as a separate and sovereign entity within a federal union.
It's really quite a revealing attitude. It is precisely my sense of this attitude (among other things) that has led me to refer, not to an administration, but instead to a "regime"--another word that is typically foreign to American political discussion of their own government. However, to the extent that progs seek to impose this viewpoint on the rest of us, I proudly adopt the title: Enemy of the state.