With this assessment the author utterly misjudges his man. Garland is a political hack, but a ideologically committed leftist. He was selected by the left for the Supreme Court and for the post of Atty. Gen. precisely because he combines the zealousness of a secular leftist with the conscience of a political hack.
Along with a Summa Cum Laude from Harvard providing blue ribbon gilt edged certification that the man will brilliantly do exactly what he is told to do by those in authority over him.
That Obama nominated Garland for the Supreme Court, a 63-year-old white male, rather than a young female or a young male from a previously unrepresented group like Asian, tells you all you need to know about Garland.
Our government bureaucracy has always been misused for political gain by those in power.
FDR used the FBI to go after his opponents before they even had the name, FBI: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/04/archives/new-jersey-pages-fbi-is-accused-of-political-acts-for-6-presidents.html
Our government bureaucracy has always been misused by the powerful oligarchs to make policies/rules or use police powers to make them even more wealthy and powerful.
None of that is new.
What is new or different:
-Whereas in the 1960s the government had a pro conservative bias, today they have a liberal bias.
-The public’s acceptance of this behavior. There are no moral standards anymore, they are numb or distracted (faux issues like climate change and LGBTQIA+...).
-The scope of powers by government which today regulates every aspect of life and business. Covid was a great example.
-No “watchdog” media if it’s a Democrat in charge and it’s something the oligarchs want. Only a few major media conglomerates and they are party tied (all of them) and beholden to the big corporations or outright owned by the oligarchs (Washington Post/Bezos, MSNBC/Gates...). The suppression of Hunters laptop and why most of the MSM is very favorable of the war in Ukraine even though no one can truly articulate a national security argument for our involvement.
-The senior level bureaucrats (2 levels down from the appointees) are all straight up political hacks as well, having been de facto vetted to make sure they are on the right team, politically speaking. Today political and ideological orientation will play a large but informal role on who gets chosen to fill key leadership slots.
Our country is in serious trouble. We have become a slightly softer and nicer version of the DDR or Soviet Union where we send folks with guns to your house and smile while they intimidate you because you dare attend a protest on 6 January even if you didn’t enter the capital (didn’t break any laws). You also might get audited often by the IRS if you believe in the wrong things: https://www.npr.org/2017/10/27/560308997/irs-apologizes-for-aggressive-scrutiny-of-conservative-groups
In the meantime for our “collective” national security, for the “greater good,” government will watch you really closely by sucking in every phone call, email, text, getting bank data, even have pediatricians report on who has guns at home (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4131854/)... and then lie about doing these things and of course without consequence to anyone even when found out that this crazy conspiratorial mis/disinformation actually is true: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jun/07/privacy-wyden-clapper-nsa-video (when will he face prison?)