When the IRS targeted Tea Party groups during the Obama years, and no one paid a serious price for it, it was both a harbinger of and contributor to the more pervasive and extreme weaponization of the federal government against dissenters from its orthodoxy that was to come.
Just ask Matt Taibbi.
On March 9, the very day the iconoclastic journalist appeared before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to testify about the “Twitter Files,” an IRS agent appeared at his home.
Let’s rephrase that: As Taibbi spoke to a congressional subcommittee created for the purpose of exposing and holding to account weaponized federal agencies, about how a number of those agencies had conspired with each other and private sector actors to target their political opposition in arguable violation of the opposition’s First Amendment rights, a federal agency with the power to wreak unique havoc on its target’s life dispatched an official to Taibbi’s door with a message.
The stated message was that the journalist was to call the IRS.
The unstated message needed no articulating: Expose federal government malfeasance such as authorities’ imposing of a mass public-private censorship regime on the American people, and you can expect a knock at your door from federal agents armed with the power to break you.
He called the IRS as instructed and was told that prior tax returns had been rejected, supposedly over concerns regarding identity theft.
Taibbi claims he has been told the issues with the returns are not “monetary,” and that in fact he’s owed a “considerable” sum from Uncle Sam.
But the idea that the timing of the visit was just a big coincidence strains credulity.
Apparently, that work perturbed those who were in power.
Congressional Democrats derided Taibbi and his co-panelist and Twitter Files co-author Michael Shellenberger as “so-called journalists” despite their sterling credentials.
To expose the United States’ Disinformation Industrial Complex—one targeting Democrats’ foes and coordinated and driven by the Deep State with which they have allied—represents a high thoughtcrime.
So both Democrats and the Deep State targeted Taibbi.
Among the demands was a call for Twitter to disclose records of interactions with journalists responsible for drafting the Twitter Files, including Taibbi specifically.
It’s clear that Taibbi, like others connected with the Twitter Files, was persona non grata with our authorities.
So when an IRS official visited his home, apparently in violation of standard protocol for communications over such tax issues, on the very day he was testifying before the Weaponization Subcommittee, how could anyone see this as anything other than retributive?
In response to the news of these visits, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and its Weaponization Subcommittee, demanded answers from the Treasury secretary and IRS commissioner about the IRS’s conduct.
Officials haven’t yet been forthcoming about those facts.
But we already know that in today’s America, deviations from ruling class orthodoxy aren’t to be tolerated.
If you engage in Wrongthink on virtually any significant issue on a social media platform, you’re liable to be censored.
Expose any of these depredations, and authorities will come down hard on you—not the actors responsible for the depredations.
If you’re on the side of the angels, by contrast, you can abuse your powers in violation of Americans’ most fundamental rights, menace outside the homes of Supreme Court justices, and destroy city blocks and attack federal buildings, with near total impunity.
The brazenness is quickly becoming the point.
They’re likely going to have to think much bigger if they’re to effectively combat an administrative state run amok as ours appears to be.