The post below was written by Charles Cole of Sheridan as a letter to the editor of the Sheridan Press. It was published in the paper on 23 May 2023.
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it only has one way to go – down the path of increasingly repressive measures until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
President Harry Truman
Despite desperate attempts by the Democrat politicians and their media allies to deny it, there is now clear and convincing evidence to conclude that our government has actively engaged in suppressing conservative free speech and punishing anyone who refuses to toe the Democrat party line.
Revelations of whistleblowers formerly associated with Twitter and recent testimony by FBI personnel suspended or fired for challenging agency rulings, practices, or procedures confirm a malevolent pattern of practice by federal law enforcement agencies. Among other outrages, the FBI participated in the labeling of parents demanding answers from school boards as “domestic terrorists,” obtained the financial records of Americans from banks without any legal process following the events of the January 6, 2021 riot, and sent a heavily-armed swat team to arrest Mark Houck – a peaceful pro-life protestor.
The detailed, 316-page Durham Report provided dispositive evidence that the DOJ and FBI actively participated in perpetrating a complete hoax designed to scuttle the 2016 campaign of Donald Trump and, subsequently, his entire presidency. They used false narratives, unsubstantiated information, and false predicates to launch a governmental effort against Trump which continues unabated to this very day.
History reveals the dangerous, potential lethality of weaponized governments. The dreaded East German secret police – the Stasi – coined a term for their policy of dealing with anyone who showed the slightest inclination toward opposing the hardline Communist regime there – Zersetzung – which in German literally means “decomposition” (e.g. of a corpse). A target’s entire life and his future were destroyed. I personally witnessed this type of operation in the Soviet Union 50 years ago during the 6 months I served on assignment there traveling around the USSR. My observations were later corroborated by personal evidence provided me by the dozens of former Soviet citizens with whom I worked for 30 years before retiring.
The best antidote to this poison is the truth! We need to actively seek it, find it, then loudly and consistently proclaim it, lest our freedoms perish in the darkness of an out of control government determined to bend citizens’ will to their purposes.