I respect your opinion. But here’s the thing. The FBI is obviously a very important organization. So important that it cannot be making any mistakes (if you can even call them “mistakes”).
As an analogy, consider an airline bagger handler and an airline pilot. We can forgive a mistake or two from the baggage handler. But the pilot had better not fly into any mountains. He has to get it right every time.
Some folks believe that the FBI is beyond redemption. It has become too politicized. I find merit in that position.
There was a time when the FBI made a mistake we would all gasp in disbelief. An investigation would ensue, heads would roll and better practices would be instituted.
Now? The coverup ensues and the witnesses to the mistake are intimidated and silenced. McCabe keeps his pension and we sail merrily on.
The simple matter of fact is this. The institutions we used to trust have been turned into politicized instruments to further the side of choice’s agenda.
The wrong person wins an election? It’s foreign Collusion!! Send someone from the FBI to interview you and you can’t remember a minor detail? Why that is lying to the FBI, SWAT raids at 2AM with CNN tagging along followed by solitary. And that just isn’t Flynn or Roger Stone, it’s as recent as Project Veritas (minus the solitary).
Something is broken and it needs fixing. To deny that is to stick one’s head in the sand.
One more note. The word “continually” keeps getting thrown around here. So and so doesn’t continually do this. Or a question like: You believe the FBI continually does that.
“Continually” is irrelevant to this matter. It means always. Very few things involving humankind “always” happens.
The question is this: is ONE time too many? How about something that is frequently happening or happening more than once?
Is once, frequently, twice, whatever too many?
I say yes when it comes to infringing our God given rights. The FBI can be made a fine organization again that deserves our trust. But much work is needed.
“...consider...an airline pilot. We can forgive a mistake or two from the baggage handler. But the pilot had better not fly into any mountains. He has to get it right every time...the FBI...has become too politicized...” [Leaning Right, post 54]
First, we must accept the truth that nobody can be 100 percent all the time. Humans are prone to error.
The only way to reduce the error rate is to construct and enforce a “corporate culture” that (first) acknowledges this universal human flaw and (second) designs social systems that backstop those who occupy critical positions with observation by colleagues, who feel duty-bound to intervene when they see a superior about to blunder.
The airline industry has been creating and improving this sort of professional culture (expressly created to improve flight safety) for more than 30 years.
No equivalent “corporate culture” exists inside the FBI, nor any Federal law enforcement organization. The organized military has been trying to establish its own equivalent for some time, but progress has been fitful at best. Most of the effort has gone toward flying safety.
Morals and self-righteousness play no part. Railing against the FBI and other LE organizations results in a success rate of exactly 0.0 percent; the organizations simply ignore the criticisms. They do so not out of contempt nor disregard for the arguments of critics, but because of cultural limitations.
Bureaucratic organizations will not agree to fire wrongdoers, nor will they take legal action against their own, just because outsiders decry their lack of action on moral grounds. Moralizers simply exhort others to be moral; they cannot succeed. Structurally, moral arguments are blunt instruments that cannot bring forth a tangibly useful result.
Better ideas are needed. The error rate can be reduced, but perfection can never be reached. Deciding what error rate is acceptable, and figuring out how to get there, requires real brilliance. And wisdom.