The mills of justice still grind slowly--but exceeding fine. And when the entire process is over and done with, how sweet the result can be.
Now a federal judge has given his approval, barring any last-minute hitches, to a class settlement for all the hundreds of different groups who were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service for special (mis)treatment. Why were they singled out? Because they dared to advertise their patriotism by including the word "patriot" in their names.
Barack Obama's Justice Department had declined to prosecute anyone for this blatant abuse of power, claiming it had found no evidence that patriotic groups had been chosen for prosecution or rather persecution.
We the gullible people were supposed to believe that this whole scandalous episode was but a coincidence or only an innocent error by management types when these openly political groups found their taxes audited and their rightful tax exemptions denied. Which was a likely story that became less likely the more closely it was examined.
Hell hath no fury like a bureaucracy out to smother anybody who gets in its way under reams of paperwork. Anybody who's ever been audited by the IRS, or just threatened by it, knows the feeling, and it's not a pleasant one at all.
At last running count, this scandal had already cost the federal government--that's you and us, federal taxpayers--$3.5 million, and the meter is still running for this ride to nowhere but more trouble. The leading plaintiff in this tangle of a lawsuit styled itself the Norcal Tea Party Patriots, doubtless a reference to its California origins. By now hundreds of politically active groups are involved in the suit.
A second and just as complicated case has now been settled thanks to a belated apology from the IRS. But how much better it would have been if the apology had been voluntary rather than forced. And best of all would have been if the IRS had done right from the get-go. Then none of these verbal contortions would have been necessary.
Instead, what should have been a badge of honor might as well have become a great big bull's eye painted by federal sharpshooters on the backs of political groups. For there are times when government doesn't work in mysterious ways, but launches an obvious vendetta against upright citizens who pay their taxes and in all other ways are productive members of society. There ought to be a special Award of Demerit in the government ranks reserved for those who, rather than protect and serve the rest of us, do what they can to harm us in the course of looking after their vested interest in the status ever quo.
Or as a cynic might well observe, nothing ever seems to change except the date on the calendar, for this is a tale twice told. It is repeated whenever government seeks to become The People's master rather than its servant. This is scarcely what the founders had in mind when they created a government of limited and divided powers so that one branch of it could serve as a check on the others. Instead of an all too convenient cover.
Now is the time for all good men and women to hasten to the rescue of a sound system that has been clogged with too many bad examples. Watch this space for further developments along these corrupt lines. For surely there are a lot of them just waiting in the pipeline. And if we of the Fourth Estate do our job, every one of them will be revealed--like cockroaches running for cover when the light surprises them. And they'll find no more places to hide.
Editorial on 04/13/2018