Assuming the can opener of free fair elections and a subsequent Democratic victory in 2026 and 2028

Will America’s non-fascist party have the will to purge the government of fascists? That’s the question JV Last is asking, and apparently we’re not going to like the answer, although I could only read the beginning of the piece:

I hope you had a nice Fourth of July and got all of that patriotic meshugas out of your system.1 Because today it’s about to take a beatdown.

While people were celebrating ’Merica, Lawfare published a piece by former FBI agent Michael Feinberg.

Feinberg left the FBI because Dan Bongino discovered that Feinberg was friends with former FBI agent Peter Strzok. Here’s what happened next:

Prior to that day, I had never faced any sort of disciplinary review or investigation. And to be clear, I was not accused of violating any rules or regulations this time either, nor had any of my cases fallen short of institutional standards. My only supposed sin was a long-standing friendship with an individual who appeared on Kash Patel’s enemies list, and against whom Dan Bongino had railed publicly. . . .

My SAC [special agent in charge] informed me in a moment she described as “brutally honest,” that I would not be receiving any promotions; in fact, I needed to prepare myself for the likelihood of being demoted. She gave me no details about what position or office I would be sent to once my time as a leader prematurely concluded.

Furthermore, she told me, I would be asked to submit to a polygraph exam probing the nature of my friendship with Pete, and (as I was quietly informed by another, friendlier senior employee) what could only be described as a latter-day struggle session. I would be expected to grovel, beg forgiveness, and pledge loyalty as part of the FBI’s cultural revolution brought about by Patel and Bongino’s accession to the highest echelons of American law enforcement and intelligence.

I’m sure you have questions; among them:

• Why is senior FBI leadership creating dossiers about employees’ private relationships?
• How are these investigations being conducted? What tools are being used?
• Do these investigations violate any laws?

Those are good questions. But the most important one is:

• If and when Donald Trump leaves office, what are we supposed to do with the people who did this?

Because here is the thing: Imagine it is 2028 and Democrat X has won the presidency. Kash Patel will only be four years into his term as FBI director. Dan Bongino is now a career employee of the bureau. The entire agency will be stacked, top to bottom, with Trump loyalists.

Would a Democratic administration have the will to purge these Trumpist elements from federal law enforcement?

I’m pretty sure I know the answer. And you’re not going to like it.

The appropriate model here is going to be “exactly the opposite of everything Merrick Garland and his boss did in 2021.”

Legally speaking, we’re going to need to get medieval on these people, but conciliatory habits are so deeply engrained among elite Democrats, especially in its gerontocratic wing — but I repeat myself — that what’s going to need to be done with extreme prejudice is going to be very difficult to do.

And yes step one is to win. (BTW I met a professor of economics at an R-1 a couple of years ago that had never heard the can opener joke. How is that possible?) But step two is to make victory meaningful in some way that lasts more than a Warholian interlude before the fascists come roaring back, which they certainly will exactly to the extent they aren’t crushed.