The IRS Scandal, Day 1042

Wall Street Journal:  Hillary’s Soft Despotism, by William McGurn:

Donald Trump is Hitler. Donald Trump is a fascist. Donald Trump is a dictator. Certainly Mr. Trump has a mouth, and he’s not afraid to use it. He also speaks to adoring crowds who cheer when he says to respond in kind to activists trying to disrupt his rallies. Even so, the over-the-top claims that Mr. Trump is the new Il Duce may be distracting attention from the soft despotism that Tocqueville deemed the far likelier menace to American liberties. This kind of authoritarianism doesn’t come with goose steps or brown shirts or large populist movements. It prefers bureaucracy to bombast. It presents itself as a solution to the complexities of modern government, and it’s called the administrative state.

Philip Hamburger—a Columbia law professor and author of the 2015 book “Is Administrative Law Unlawful?”—defines the administrative state as the substitution of regulatory edicts for laws passed by the people’s elected representatives. In the American iteration, at least, this often means the same federal agency that writes the rules also enforces and adjudicates them—a confluence of powers Madison once called the “very definition of tyranny.” ...

Now, it’s certainly possible that a President Trump would seed the federal agencies with men and women who would abuse their powers for Trumpian outcomes. In real life, however, the compulsion to decree to one’s neighbor what’s best for him (and use the federal government to enforce it) is an affliction of modern American liberalism. In other words, the kind of people Hillary Clinton, if elected, would rely on to fill the federal bureaucracies, every last one of them eager and willing to impose rules on the American people that would never fly in Congress.

What kind of rules and regulations? Here are a few instances from recent years:

• In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, the IRS targets groups regarded as enemies of the president—pro-Israel, pro-life, pro-tea-party, etc. When this became public, its officials, including the new IRS commissioner, John Koskinen, make clear their contempt for congressional panels trying to investigate.

• The IRS Scandal, Day 1041 (Mar. 15, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1040 (Mar. 14, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1039 (Mar. 13, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1038 (Mar. 12, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1037 (Mar. 11, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1036 (Mar. 10, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1035 (Mar. 9, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1034 (Mat. 8, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1033 (Mar. 7, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1032 (Mar. 6, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1031 (Mar. 5, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1030 (Mar. 4, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1029 (Mar. 3, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1028 (Mar. 2, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1027 (Mar. 1, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1026 (Feb. 29, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1025 (Feb. 28, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1024 (Feb. 27, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1023 (Feb. 26, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1022 (Feb. 25, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1021 (Feb. 24, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1020 (Feb. 23, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1019 (Feb. 22, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1018 (Feb. 21, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1017 (Feb. 20, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1016 (Feb. 19, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1015 (Feb. 18, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1014 (Feb. 17, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1013 (Feb. 16, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1012 (Feb. 15, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1011 (Feb. 14, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1010 (Feb. 13, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1009 (Feb. 12, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1008 (Feb. 11, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1007 (Feb. 10, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1006 (Feb. 9, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1005 (Feb. 8, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1004 (Feb. 7, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1003 (Feb. 6, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1002 (Feb. 5, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1001 (Feb. 4, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 901-1000 (Oct. 27, 2015 - Feb. 3, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 801-900 (July 19, 2015 - Oct. 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 701-800 (April 10, 2015 - July 18, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)