“Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Friday said former President Trump ‘should serve time’ if he is convicted on federal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” The Hill reported Friday. “‘If in fact he’s convicted of the crimes charged by Jack Smith and the Department of Justice …yeah, I think he should serve time, quite frankly,’ Gonzales, who served in former President George W. Bush’s administration, said in an interview with former White House press secretary and MSBNC host Jen Psaki.”
It might be fair to ask what kind of “Republican” thinks a show of political solidarity with Democrat media apparatchiks serves the interests of his party’s core constituency, especially considering that Pew Research Center documents MSNBC’s audience as 95% Democrat. It might also be fair to conclude he’s from that wing of the party alternatively described as “Vichycons” (“collaborators with the enemy ruling class”) or by Donald Trump as “the swamp” to be drained (the very “leaders” Trump voters rejected as the enemies within the gates).
It’s also instructive to note that as a key player in the Bush administration, Gonzales supported the use of all kinds of policies Democrats attacked him for when he was in power, from employing “enhanced interrogation techniques” (i.e., “torture”); limiting Freedom of Information Act requests to restrict access to records of former presidents, shielding Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force documents from Congressional review; helping draft the presidential order authorizing military tribunals; and arguing against a Constitutional habeus corpus requirement; approving of the Patriot Act and eavesdropping on citizens without warrants; and a host of other civil liberties violations that resulted in his resignation in 2007 “in the best interest of the Department” following calls for his removal. That he’s being embraced by “progressive” media flacks now that he’s useful to them suggests it wasn’t what he was doing then that they objected to, it’s that the Democrats weren’t the ones with the power to do it themselves.
Gonzales showed what kind of Republican he was back in 2005 when he told the Senate he wanted them to remove Patriot Act restrictions and that he supported Congress extending the expired “assault weapon” ban, pointing out that his brother was a Houston SWAT officer:
“I worry about his safety and the types of weapons he will confront on the street,” Gonzales said. “The president has made it clear that he stands ready to sign a reauthorization of the federal assault weapons ban if it is sent to him by Congress. I, of course, support the president on this issue.”
Authoritarians rely on “Only Ones” and all that implies. You’ll note their emphasis is always on “law enforcement” instead of rights enforcement.
So much for Gonzales’ understanding of the Second Amendment. So much for George Bush’s. And so much for the National Rifle Association’s, selling Bush to its membership not as a flawed lesser of two evils (and thus a more politically pragmatic) choice than doctrinaire gun-grabber John Kerry (and in the preceding election, Al Gore), but instead glorifying him as the “Vote Freedom First” President, replete with a broken-open 12-gauge, a hunting dog, and an orange and tan field outfit that looked like it came straight from the catalog.
This is what got the kneejerk Fudd membership drooling:
“In the United States we have a long tradition of hunting and sport shooting,” stated LaPierre. “President Bush and Vice President Cheney both love to hunt and fish. They know the Constitution gives people the personal right to bear arms. And, they want to pass the values of our Nation on to a new generation.”
There’s enough wrong with that selling point and that statement about where rights come from to warrant a whole nother column, but let’s return to Bush’s AG pick Gonzales and an interview he gave in May of last year. He’s more adamant than ever:
Speaking with CNN’s John Berman … former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said AR-15s were “killing machines” and echoed comments made by Mr Biden a day earlier saying there was “no rational basis” for owning such a weapon.
He sounds like Sean Penn, who preceded “killing machines” with “cowardly.” Penn also reportedly employed what could euphemistically be described as enhanced interrogation techniques — on Madonna with a bat.
This was the man in charge of enforcing the laws of the Republic, appointed by a Republican president strongly endorsed by NRA.
Despite hollowly crowing about “Republican” credentials and connections, the career Quislings the DSM finds advantageous to give influence time to have always been members of the Uniparty establishment swamp that have been betraying gun owner interests for decades. The boot in the face with the “R” on it is no less evil than the one with a “D.”
As Bill Clinton mentor Professor Carroll Quigley wrote in Tragedy and Hope:
“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.”
If the GOP is not allowed to fix this, we’ll just have to find some other ways to secure our rights. We can, you know.
The deliberately unstated truth in all of this is the ongoing prosecutions are not so much about destroying Donald Trump, who in many ways is an avatar (and an admittedly flawed one). It is about demoralizing and defeating the citizens he has rallied who support the platform and promises he campaigned on – and rubbing their faces in it.
With “Republicans” like Gonzales helping them do that, who needs Democrats?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
