An Increasingly Fragile Empire

Our creaky, late-stage American empire is looking fragile. Texas is talking secession. Wyoming is paying close attention.

Everything looks brittle. Perhaps things will break. William S. Lind has been telling everyone who will listen that a legitimacy crisis is looming.

One would hope our ruling elites were prudent enough to lower tensions right about now. Perhaps Nancy Pelosi and “the enemy within” could retire to a secret chandeliered hideaway for a pleasant game of whist.

That is not happening. The Washington swamp is seething with anger and malice. Word has gone out that deplorables must not only be punished as domestic terrorists, but publicly humiliated. No tweet is too small to become a federal crime as needed.

The people pulling the levers to operate Joe Biden are doing their best to make things worse. So are the members of the ruling uniparty who identify as congressional Democrats. We are left to wonder what they have in mind for the deplorables if the planned deprogramming fails.

Tossing constitutional and political norms out the window is an excellent way to erode the regime’s legitimacy further. Therefore it is happening. We must acknowledge the possibility that our rulers are not terribly bright.

Exhibit A is a proposal to promote the District of Columbia to statehood. It was introduced this week by Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat. It already has an astonishing 38 Senate sponsors. The House of Representatives approved it last year.

Even in normal circumstances this idea is risible. The District of Columbia is inhabited by party loyalists, tentacular swamp creatures and, in poorer areas, the regime’s dusky-skinned household servants. Their collective aim is to reprise this 1937 headline showing Stalin winning 100 percent of the vote. The best they have done in D.C. so far is 92 percent, but on the other hand the purge of Trump voters is not yet complete.

Exhibit B is the White House’s announcement this week of a commission to study Supreme Court “reforms.”

Normal Americans might suspect that the only “reforms” the Supreme Court needs is for Congress to limit the justices' ability to concoct things like new “trans” rights. That would be appropriate under Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution. John Roberts once endorsed jurisdiction stripping. So, for different reasons, did The Nation.

Naturally the only “reforms” the left wants are ones that cement its rule. We may reasonably conclude, along with Josh Blackman, that the only purpose for the commission is to justify packing the court. Politico noted that one member of the commission said in 2019: “I often point out to people who aren’t lawyers that the Supreme Court is not defined as ‘nine person body’ in the Constitution, and it has changed size many times.”

Exhibit C is a proposed federal law that would permit Americans to possess firearms and ammunition only if they “undergo[] a psychological evaluation” and purchase an annual “insurance policy” from the government for $800. If Americans submit to these measures, plus additional bureaucratic intrusiveness, they may apply for a license from the U.S. Department of Justice to possess firearms and ammo. The bill, H.R. 127, was introduced in early January by the intellectually gifted Sheila Jackson Lee and made available publicly this week.

The mandatory psychological evaluation must be “conducted by a licensed psychologist approved by the Attorney General,” and may include “a psychological evaluation of other members of the household in which the individual resides.”

This is where normal Americans should pray to their Maker that their ex-wives, ex-husbands, and anyone at work who hates guns will say only nice things. The psychological examination can include “any spouse of the individual, any former spouse of the individual, and at least 2 other persons who are a member of the family of, or an associate of, the individual to further determine the state of the mental, emotional, and relational stability of the individual in relation to firearms.”

Of course only conspiracy theorists and horned Q shamans would suggest that this “psychological evaluation” is intended to deny firearms to everyone but regime loyalists. Or that Trump voters would be automatically disqualified, if not sent to the camps.

Any such calumny would only be offered by ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives. Homeland Security knows what to do with them.

This is only the beginning of the restrictions our rulers gleefully anticipate. H.R. 127 says that possessing AR-15s, FN FALs, and many semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines requires an additional “military-style weapons license” that, one suspects, the hoplophobic managerial class who have seized power may not be quick to grant.

There is also an outright ban on possessing “large capacity ammunition feeding devices,” defined as magazines that can accept more than 10 rounds. There appears to be no grandfather clause. The only exceptions are for law enforcement and manufacturing for law enforcement.

The Democrat elites who encouraged street commies and their inner-city allies to burn down businesses last year embrace law and order when convenient. H.R. 127 says that anyone who possesses guns or ammo without a license “shall be fined not less than $75,000 and not more than $150,000, imprisoned not less than 15 years and not more than 25 years, or both.”

Our ruling elites do not seem to realize that these proposals, along with their affection for cultural Marxism, erode their legitimacy. Matt Bracken is right. There are no guardrails remaining.

If these proposals, along with an end to the filibuster, are enacted, the regime’s legitimacy will diminish further. Our rulers may be astonished to wake up one day and learn that they are viewed as illegitimate. They may not understand that a legitimacy crisis can lead to a sovereignty crisis. Texas will not be alone.