On Wednesday, I watched a House Intelligence hearing remarkable primarily for how calm and cordial it was. It stood in stark contrast to most of the hearings we’ve seen of late – though undoubtedly, there are plenty of routine, non-fireworks-producing hearings – those just don’t grab our attention.

It isn’t that the fireworks are unwarranted, though – particularly, when it comes to the Weaponization subcommittee, whose purpose is to investigate alleged abuses of governmental authority. Before their May hearing, Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman, referring to the FBI, ominously observed that “The eye of Sauron has been turned on the American people and it is a frightening time in which we live.”

Harriet Hageman on the FBI:

"They eye of Sauron has been turned on the American people and it is a frightening time in which we live." pic.twitter.com/LxovopeLEj

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 18, 2023

I wish I could just write that off as hyperbole but given what we’ve learned about the agency’s focus and tactics in recent years, I don’t think it’s that far off the mark.

And yet, while we’ve had to establish a congressional subcommittee to police the policers, a recent Cato Institute study found an alarmingly large number of young people favor “the government installing surveillance cameras in every household” in order to “reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity.” Three in 10 Americans under 30 support the idea of an omnipresent government surveillance – not just in public, but in their homes – in everyone’s homes!

It’s a mite difficult to push back on the weaponization of a government to whom far too many seem only too willing to hand over the entire armory.

This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Friday, June 9th. Audio included below.