Political Pistachio: "I Never Feared My Government Until Now"

by JASmius

You know how the "thug" label was put on Seattle Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman last week after his Fox/Erin Andrews post-NFC Championship Game interview? Doesn't it seem much better and more accurately applied to Barack Obama?

That's the growing consensus on the Right:

Conservatives are decrying what they describe as the heavy hand of the Obama administration using the power of the government to silence and intimidate people and groups on the right.

"It sure looks like a message is being sent," says John Fund, national affairs columnist for National Review Online. "If you're trying to intimidate political opponents and encourage them not to get involved in politics, this is a very effective set of practices."

In recent days, the federal government has gone after several high-profile conservatives. In Virginia, former Gov. Bob McDonnell was indicted along with his wife over gifts and loans he allegedly received from a political donor in exchange for influence.

In New York, filmmaker and author Dinesh D'Souza, whose work has criticized Obama, faces indictment for alleged election fraud in a case over his political contributions to a friend and U.S. Senate candidate.

The Regime attacks on McDonnell and Chris Christie were pre-emptive strikes against the threats they posed against continued Democrat control of the White House. The attack on D'Souza was retribution for his attempt to vet O's radical communist background in the 2012 election cycle as it was manifestly embargoed four years earlier.

But "make no mistake" - this is a general anti-conservative crackdown:

The IRS, which was already under fire for targeting tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status, recently came looking into the nonprofit activities of a group of elite Hollywood conservatives, Friends of Abe....

In the Friends case, for example, the New York Times reported Wednesday that the federal tax officials sought "a 10-point request for detailed information" from the group, specifically its meetings with GOP leaders like Herman Cain, former Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, and Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. The group, whose membership is kept secret in left-leaning Hollywood, is seeking tax-exempt status.

While some conservative observers are being - understandably - cautious in the extent of their accusations, others are letting fly with the self-evident truth:

The timing for such engagement by the administration seems suspect, Fund told Newsmax.

"The tea parties were very active in 2010 but much less in 2012 because many of them had roadblocks put up in front of them… They had their non-profit statuses delayed. Now, as we are heading into 2014 elections, we see the same thing happening all over again, with slightly different tactics and highly visible people put under the microscope," Fund said.

While Fund said, "I'm not accusing anyone of anything," he also speculated the administration's motive.

"One would certainly have to be suspicious of the timing of this just about the same time as people are deciding on becoming active in politics in an election year. If you were to send a signal, you'd want to send them several months before the election. If this were political, you'd want to dissuade people from getting involved in politics this year," Fund said....

"It's obvious the left is targeting the right very hard, while ignoring the bigger, more nefarious criminal on their side," says Republican political analyst Cheri Jacobus.

"The heavy hand of so-called 'justice' seems to only come down on conservatives, while ignoring the left's — and chiefly President Obama's — role in the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, the big Obamacare lies and the deadly Benghazi actions," Jacobus told Newsmax.

Web pundit Matt Drudge was more blunt: "Holder unleashing the dogs," Drudge wrote on his Twitter account Thursday, noting in another tweet that Attorney General Eric Holder along with the FBI is now seeking to investigate News Corp. and its outspoken head Rupert Murdoch, in addition to others who have criticized the administration.

And, as you might imagine and as the Regime doubtless intended, the crackdown is having its desired effect:

Cleta Mitchell, a Washington, D.C., attorney who has represented tea party groups and conservative organizations targeted by the IRS for investigation, said Friday that many people are now afraid to speak up against government pressure.

It represents a new climate in government — unlike any she has seen in her decades working in Washington.

"I think it's like living in the former Soviet Union with these people doing everything they possibly can to try to silence people who disagree with them and to try to make it impossible to citizen groups to try to hold elected officials accountable," Mitchell told Newsmax. "It's quite dreadful. I've never seen anything like this." [emphasis added]

Remember the worst Watergate caricatures of President Nixon? His "enemies list" and his using federal agencies like the IRS to target and silence opponents? Remember how the media was "transformed" by that ultimate partisan gift into the loud, boisterous, shameless arm of the Democrat/Left apparatus? Now they have their own Nixon, and of course they say and do nothing about it because, of course, The One is their Nixon, they agree with him ideologically, and their moral supremacism justifies any tactic used against what they perceive as their blood enemies: conservatives. And absent an independent free press alerting the American people to the full extent of Red Barry's tyranny, there can and will be no mass public uprising against it.

This, my friends, is why I've been saying since November 6th, 2012, that the Old Republic is dead, and that the only future America as we knew it has is to survive the Obama dictatorship, somehow overthrow it, and resurrect constitutional government from the ashes. It will be the work of years or decades, it will entail sacrifices that most of us cannot fathom, and most likely few of us will be around to see this one-time free country liberated.

My friend and the proprietor of this blog is an incorrigible optimist and believes that America can be saved. I hope and pray he is right. But then I read quotes like this one:

Gerald Molen, the producer of Dinesh D'Souza's documentary film "2016: Obama's America," says he never feared his government before he learned that D'Souza is under federal investigation for election fraud. ...

Asked by Malzberg if he ever felt threatened or had any feelings they should not have been making the film, Molen answered, "No. This is America. I've never had that feeling," adding, "I've never had the occasion to think that I had to fear my government. I never had the thought that I had reason to think I had to look over my shoulder until now."

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have