Democrats, Democracy, Privacy, the Dossier, and Technology

It is really starting to look as if the FBI used the Trump Dossier to issue a FISA warrant to investigate Carter Page, a Trump campaign official. This is troubling for many reasons. First, the Trump Dossier was never corroborated by the FBI. According to McCabe’s recent testimony the only truthful statement in the Dossier is that Page travelled to Russia. Second, the Dossier was paid for by the Clinton Campaign and the DNC making it highly prejudicial. Third, it appears that many of the characters involved in the Dossier were anti-Trump and pro-Clinton (social media activity has enforced these claims). Fourth, it is looking more like the Dossier was the FBI and Democrat’s “insurance policy” to prevent a Trump presidency. Fifth, FISA warrants against American Citizens can only be issued if a crime has been committed – thus far Page has not been charged with any crime. Finally, this whole mess is a Constitutional issue of monumental proportions for many reasons.

The fact that a political party can collude with intelligence agencies to influence or change an election is extremely alarming. While it would be troubling if Republicans colluded with Russians to undermine our election process, it is just as troubling if Democrats colluded internally to do the same. We know that the DNC colluded with the Clinton campaign to push out Bernie Sanders. Hence, it is not beyond the political realm that the DNC would do the same against Trump. The Democratic primary system violates everything that Democrats claim they stand for in our Democratic system: One Person, One Vote. In Reynolds v. Simms (1962) the Court held that all seats within houses of state legislators must be determined only through population (in other words, every district must have the same population). The DNC (and the RNC to some degree) violates these democratic principles. For instance, when the winner of a state garners all the delegates is hardly democratic. Furthermore, the DNC super delegate system proved the fix was in. Clinton won a 95% plurality of DNC Super Delegates. Of course, Clinton did not win anywhere near 95% of the vote nationally. Yet, hypocritical democrats complained that Trump should not be President because he did not win a plurality of the popular vote. Clinton was not nominated through anything that resembles a democratic process. I do not agree with Reynolds v. Simms, but it is the law and Democrats fail to follow the principles of this opinion.

Democrats have supported the concept of “privacy” ever since the Supreme Court has elevated that right in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Liberals have used privacy to protect everything from contraception and abortion to gay marriage and gay sex. The Court will also use “privacy” in a recent case, Carpenter v. United States, to prevent law enforcement from obtaining GPS data off phones without a warrant. However, Carpenter is not a “privacy” case, it should be a “property” case (authorities cannot trespass [phone] on private property without a warrant). But for some reason, the Court does not like to use enumerated rights but instead relies on elevated ones. In any event, when Bush was President the Democrats made no attempt to hide their contempt for the Patriot Act and FISA warrants. Democrats said anything that made the process of obtaining warrants easier violated people’s privacy. They feared that intelligence agencies could abuse this power. Fast Forward 15 years and Democrats are helping intelligence agencies to abuse this power. If a Dossier can be used without any corroborating evidence to issue FISA warrants to spy on political enemies (the incoming Trump administration), then we have a great Constitutional crisis. When Nixon invaded the privacy of political opponents it was rightly seen as criminal. But what is happening today is much worse because people are doing “questionable” things to subvert the law. It is going to be hard to find any wrongdoing in these cases because Democrats and intelligence agencies can simply say they made a mistake. Or they can insist they had no intent to break the law – they just did not realize the Dossier was riddled with false factual statements. Just as the FBI could not prove intent with Clinton’s email server, it is going to be hard to say anyone acted maliciously against Trump. Rogue Democrats and agents can simply say they were acting to protect national security – even if it is not true.

Privacy and Democracy does not mean anything to Democrats. Privacy and Democracy only matters when it promotes their ideology. Obviously, privacy and Democracy means very little when it stands in the way of their political objectives. When a third of Democrats vote to impeach a President, who has yet to be charged with a crime – this is a Constitutional crisis. I understand that they do not like Trump, but in order for a Democracy to work there must be tolerance. But tolerance is highly missing in our society.

So, what has changed over the past 200 years to make us less tolerant as a people? Technology. Social media and technology is killing us. It is not only making us less social, 24 / 7 media is nothing more than brainwashing. People are unwilling to hear opposing viewpoints and debate issues especially without throwing insults at others. This environment of everyone believing they are 100% correct, 100% of the time has led to a huge hysteria around the nation that people are willing to circumvent the Constitution to correct perceived wrongs. Unfortunately, this situation will only get worse because social media is addictive like alcohol, sugar, tobacco, and drugs. Social media attacks the same area of the brain that makes people feel good. Social media is designed to be addictive. People feel good about having a lot of friends and “likes” on posts. It feeds the addictive part of our brain because it makes us feel popular and happy. In other words, this problem is going to get worse. So, it should come as no surprise that much of the evidence to support Democratic and Intelligence agency collusion has been found on social media. Since people become friends with persons of similar ideology, it is not surprising that people feel safe to transmit incriminating materials. Social media not only limits tolerance, but it also limits intellect. Something has got to give when half the people feel there is Republican collusion with Russia and the other half feel there is Democrat collusion with the FBI. Maybe, both sides are wrong because all of the above is true. No matter what the result, eventually we will be the impeaching of government officials simply because they have different political view.