The Memo

The news this week has been consumed by the release of a controversial memo, written by the Republicans of the House Intelligence Committee. That memo, which was released over the objections of House Democrats and the FBI director, detailed alleged abuses of surveillance law by the FBI which, in the view of Chairman Devin Nunes called into question the political motives of the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election.

The memo is without doubt a genuinely partisan document, designed to undermine the investigation that has gone on now for two years. Whether it has any real factual basis or - as the Democrats and FBI claim - suffers from purposeful omissions of context is currently unknowable, because the supporting documents haven't  been released by anyone.

The fact of the matter is that regardless of the merits of the memo I'm disgusted with everyone involved. The Republican Party has finally been subsumed entirely by the president, as symbolized by its officially taking sides with him against the FBI. The Democrats, who those with memories will recall were castigating the FBI for its handling of the Clinton email investigation just a year ago, have found that they don't appreciate political attacks on federal law enforcement after all.

Meanwhile, the FBI has been engaging in abuses of power ranging from questionable to horrifying from its founding nearly a century ago. Even mong the vast, only-vaguely accountable federal agencies that handle law enforcement, intelligence, and surveillance it has a particularly checkered history.

It is in spite of my profound skepticism of the FBI as an institution - maybe in a sense because of it - that it is so surreal and disturbing to find that it is increasingly becoming a political football tossed back and forth between the parties.

Law enforcement is always a delicate issue. It is the place where the frequently high-flown ideals and inspiring phrases behind the composition of policy meet the unpleasant reality that the existence of law implies the threat of force. Because it is impossible to investigate and prosecute every crime the application of the law must be in some sense subjective. There must be some set of conscious or unconscious criteria by which we determine what is a crime and prioritize the punishment of certain crimes or crimes committed by certain individuals.

It is very dangerous to allow strictly partisan politics to become a part of those criteria. Law enforcement must always in some sense be political, but when it is no longer off limits to purely partisan activity it immediately becomes more susceptible to abuse. The fact that the FBI has largely maintained its political credibility with the very poor record on civil liberties it already has makes me uneasy about the record it would have if it were stripped of its nonpartisan veneer. That the President seems to have no issues at all encouraging that process - he recently asked the director of the FBI whose "side" the Director is on and is reportedly considering using the memo as an excuse to fire the FBI official overseeing the special counsel investigation - is proof, as if more were needed, of his complete lack of scruples when it comes to protecting himself and his own influence.

Bizarrely, their reflexive antagonism to Trump has led a number of prominent Democratic and #Resistance figures to heap praise on a security establishment of which they ought to be skeptical on principle. They are making heroes of people like former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who famously lied to Congress about warrantless surveillance of American citizens before it was exposed by the Snowden leaks, all because he criticized Trump's political pressure on the FBI. This sort of behavior seems to be a part of a broader attempt by the Democratic Party to capture a political center which they still haven't recognized no longer exists.

In short, almost everything surrounding the political debates about the FBI is a sham. The selective, almost pathologically inconsistent application of principled arguments for partisan advantage on the part of both parties is nauseating. For the Republicans, that is compounded by their apparent willingness to compromise federal law enforcement in the defense of a president most of them privately despise but are too cowardly to challenge without the comfort of anonymity.

And so the sordid power struggle continues apace. Caught in the middle as ever are the common people of this country, who are seeing their relative living standards continue to materially worsen while the two parties - both increasingly funded by the super rich - do battle for who gets to sit in the biggest chairs. The FBI may be only the newest battleground in the contest, but it is particularly treacherous ground on which to fight. The parties, and the president, would both do better to reevaluate their priorities. I doubt I am alone in my pessimism that they will do so.