The power of the federal government to break up private enterprises is not found in the Constitution. The foundation of Leviathan's "trust-busting" is - are you ready? - the Commerce Clause! Yes, that's right...the same abused favorite-of-statists lever to effectively regulate everything under the sun is the basis of "anti-trust" laws in the US.
Therefore, when you cheerfully suggest that Trump break up Amazon, FB, Twitter, and any other firm you dislike, you are also giving philosophical sanction to Schumer and Pelosi etc to tax away ammo, most of the New Deal, and pretty much every despotic economic law in the US since the 1930s.
I get it: these firms wield great power and access to data etc. I also understand nobody is forcing you to buy their products. Therefore I do not see the philosophical congruence of simultaneously saying Bernie is a dope and we dislike socialism and crony capitalism etc but then support the government using an unenumerated power to break up a company that offers a service people voluntarily use.
Trump will someday not be president and someday we will have a ghastly DNC apparatchik heading the Executive branch. When that President pushes to break up FR or Fox or Diamonds and Silk on antitrust grounds, I can sleep well knowing I didn't help contribute to the right-wing antitrust witch hunt.
Oh, and FB and Amazon and Google will likely be like IBM at that time...a once-feared firm that is now still big but yesterday's news.
Good post, DB. Too many FReepers are hostile to govt intrusion except when its something they want.
IBM did not have the power to use the power of Persuasion to shift opinions, voter turnout, and hence - elections.
We are now *literally* living in a “Brave New World”.
I suggest you may want to start following Scott Adams’ daily periscope podcasts to get back up to speed. Its 1984. To leave the primary information/opinion/news shaping media to the tyranny of the left is equivalent to committing political suicide.
Example: President Trump should have a 70% approval rating based on his performance. That he is barely treading water is no accident - at least half of the electorate has been completely brainwashed (LITERALLY) and if the ‘social media’ can sway just 5% more they can get Trump out of office next year. That is the way youngsters (defined by me as anyone under 50) are now getting their information - AND - their opinions (which are literally ASSIGNED to them by the leftist social media. Its not hit or miss propaganda anymore - its psychology and science. Again, consult Scott Adams to start learning about the new world we live in).
To cede those battlefields is to surrender.