“No, an agent of the government has access to one kind of power: the government that he is an agent of.”
If a policeman stops a violent criminal from harming an innocent victim, he appears to be accessing righteousness. This is the righteousness revered by the common man.
But it that policeman is not necessarily driven by internal righteousness.
Where he is able to demonstrate internal righteousness would be to disobey unrighteous orders from his employer.
The takeaway point seems to be that government power in and of itself has no righteousness, but that it has access to a transcendent power which is righteous.
He would be ACTING in a righteous manner.
But he could just as easily be using the same force in a way that isn’t. Just look up the many many times cops have shot unarmed people.
The fact is that the police are force. The are the iron fist of government. Now that iron fist might, or might not, be wrapped in the velvet glove of righteousness. But they’re still an iron fist.
Never revere the iron fist.