D.C. Law: On Power, and Justice

The Theater of False Liberation

My friends, let us speak plainly about what we witness in our nation’s capital today. There is a curious theater unfolding before us, one that demands we examine the true nature of power and its proper use.

Consider this strange paradox: an administration proclaims itself the champion of “law and order” while the very data shows violent crime declining in our capital city. Yet federal forces march through Washington’s streets, the National Guard deployed not against rising chaos, but against statistics that tell a different story entirely. When Mayor Bowser points to the actual crime data, she is dismissed. When local officials question the legality of federal takeover, they are ignored. This is not governance—this is theater, performed for an audience that craves the illusion of rescue from dangers that exist more in rhetoric than reality.

Power Reveals Itself in Contradictions

You see, power reveals itself not in grand proclamations, but in these quiet moments of contradiction. When a leader describes his own capital as overrun by “violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals,” despite evidence to the contrary, we must ask: what purpose does such language serve? Is it protection, or is it something else entirely?

The pattern becomes clearer when we observe how this “law and order” is applied. Notice how the focus falls consistently on cities with Black mayors, on diverse communities, on those who dare to question the narrative. Meanwhile, arrest warrants for Republican congressmen go mysteriously ignored, and prosecution becomes a tool wielded selectively—a sword for enemies, a shield for allies.

The New Gilded Age: When Justice Becomes Merchandise

This brings us to a deeper truth about corruption in our time. The Brennan Center’s analysis reveals something profound: we are witnessing the concentration of private wealth and political power in ways that would make the robber barons of the Gilded Age blush. When a president issues over 1,600 pardons in six months—many to those who donated generously to his cause—we see “patronage pardoning” in its purest form. Justice becomes transactional, mercy becomes merchandise.

Consider the audacity: Trevor Milton, convicted of fraud owing $675 million in restitution, receives a pardon after significant donations flow to Trump’s committees. The message could not be clearer—break the law in service of the agenda, and protection will follow. This costs taxpayers and crime victims over $1.3 billion, but what is public treasure compared to private loyalty?

The Weaponization of Justice

The weaponization runs deeper still. Ed Martin, as interim U.S. Attorney, hounds Democratic senators with letters suggesting criminal conduct for “feisty remarks” while launching “Operation Whirlwind” ostensibly to protect the President. He offers prosecution services to billionaire Elon Musk like a medieval lord offering his sword to a wealthy patron. The instruments of justice become the tools of revenge.

Conflicts of Interest as Art Form

And speaking of Musk—here we see conflict of interest elevated to an art form. The man leads the Department of Government Efficiency while holding multi-billion dollar federal contracts, essentially deciding his own ethical boundaries. When a bipartisan funding bill threatens Tesla’s operations in China, Musk’s opposition scuttles the deal. Private interest doesn’t just influence policy—it dictates it.

The Assault on Truth-Telling Institutions

The assault on truth-telling institutions completes this picture. A billion dollars cut from NPR and PBS for “bias,” while conservative outlets receive favored status. The Associated Press banned from the White House press pool. Defamation lawsuits wielded like clubs against any media outlet that dares investigate too closely. When information becomes enemy territory, democracy itself is under siege.

The Fundamental Question: Laws or Whims?

My friends, this is not about partisan politics—this is about the fundamental question of whether we are a nation governed by laws or by the whims of those powerful enough to rewrite them. When the Department of Justice becomes the President’s personal law firm, when pardons are sold to the highest bidder, when federal law enforcement serves not justice but personal vendettas, we have crossed a line from which it becomes increasingly difficult to return.

How Republics Fall: The Slow Erosion

The tragedy is not just in what is done, but in how it is received. The very people who cry loudest for law and order cheer when laws are broken in their name. The very citizens who demand accountability celebrate when their champions escape all consequence. This is how republics fall—not in dramatic collapse, but in the slow erosion of the principles that once held them together.

Truth Has Its Own Power

Yet in this darkness, we must remember that truth has its own power. Statistics cannot be permanently suppressed. Reality has a way of asserting itself despite the grandest theatrical productions. The declining crime rates in Washington D.C. remain true regardless of how many federal agents march through its streets. The Constitution endures even when it is violated by those sworn to protect it.

The Moment of Reckoning Approaches

This is why we must speak clearly about what we see, without partisan filter or comfortable denial. When power concentrates itself this thoroughly, when corruption becomes this systematic, when justice becomes this transactional, we approach a moment of reckoning that will test everything we claim to believe about ourselves as a people.

The Ancient and Eternal Choice

The choice before us is ancient and eternal: Will we be governed by law or by the arbitrary exercise of power? Will we demand equal justice or accept that different rules apply to different classes of people? Will we insist on truth or allow ourselves to be comforted by profitable lies?

The Ultimate Truth Beyond Human Machination

For in the end, all earthly power is temporary, all human authority is borrowed, and all attempts to escape accountability through wealth or position are ultimately illusions. The scales of true justice cannot be permanently rigged, for they rest in hands far steadier than our own.

And so we come to the ultimate truth that transcends all human machination and political theater: God says, the righteous will live forever and witness the wonders of heaven. And the wicked shall perish. ~Balance Due