The Imperative of an American Lustration
In the aftermath of the downfall of the Soviet empire, many of its former captive nations (like the Baltics, Poland, and the Czech Republic) implemented a policy of “lustration,” a process of identifying, exposing, and removing officials who were complicit in the oppressions and crimes of the Communist governments that they served. Reading the reviews of Deborah Birx’s book by Michael Senger and Jeffrey Tucker of the Brownstone Institute makes it clear that the post-Communist example is worthy of imitation in post-COVID (speaking optimistically) world.
In her appalling book, this appalling woman chronicles her myriad appalling deeds. In a nutshell, she lied and manipulated and manipulated and lied in order to impose her desired COVID strategy–severe lockdown, of indefinite duration. Moreover, her book makes clear that her beliefs and desires were not grounded in science or fact or a sober appraisal of trade-offs (something that did not enter her “thinking” in the least), but were instead purely the product of her monomania, righteous ignorance, and not a little CCP-philia.
And because largely of this, and her, 330 million Americans had their lives and livelihoods turned upside down.
Of course as egregious as she was, Birx did not work alone. Some of her co-conspirators (and yes, that is the right word) are known: Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins, Robert Redfield, Matthew Pottinger. But there were necessarily many other accessories with much lower public profiles, or indeed no public profilecs at all.
Given the massive harm inflicted on the country, and the lives and liberties of its citizens, the actors and their acts must be known. And not merely through the self-interested memoirs of confessed (indeed boastful) liars. This is necessary not just to punish the guilty (though any punishment will not come anywhere near the harm), but to shed a light on how government “works” in the hope it may not “work” this way in the future.
That’s the purpose of lustration.
The public health establishment should of course be a focus of this effort, to investigate its role in shaping the response to COVID and also its potential role in causing it. But not the only one. The actions of the FDA in approving vaccines and responding (or not, more accurately) to widespread reports of adverse side effects also demand examination. (Look at how the FDA responded to a report about contamination at the Abbot baby formula factory, and compare to how it is responding–or not–to report after report regarding “vaccine” side-effects.)
The military as well. Who is responsible for the vaccine mandates that have devastated morale, led to the separation, resignation, or failure to re-enlist of thousands of dedicated soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, and which are a major cause in the military’s current shocking recruiting shortfalls? Why did they make this decision? Why are they sticking to it so mulishly despite the obvious consequences?
And the need for cleansing extends beyond COVID. For example, did the execrable General Mark Milley usurp the Constitutional powers of the commander and chief?
I could go on.
You will note that my (very incomplete) list of potential subjects is limited to soi disant “civil servants,” i.e., bureaucrats, and is devoid of politicians. That is no accident. The most shocking fact about COVID policy is that it was almost entirely the creation of an American nomenklatura, with the supposed agents of self-government (including Donald Trump) playing at best a tertiary and certainly cowardly part.
Look at Birx. She arrogated to herself the powers to make momentous decisions, because. Because why? Well, because she could and no Constitutionally sanctioned individual stopped her. Indeed, they enabled her.
Restoration of true self-government requires Americans to know what a sham self-government has become.
If you think that lustration is unprecedented, well that’s not true. We have an example before our very eyes–the January Sixth Committee. Its purpose is clearly the lustration of Trump and Trump officials who allegedly attempted to undermine “our democracy.” So if the left shrieks in horror at the thought of Deborah Birx and Tony Fauci et al in the dock, well, sauce for the goose . . .
That said, the greatest service that the January Sixth Committee is performing is to show how NOT to proceed. It is transparently partisan. Worse, it lacks the procedural safeguards–specifically the ability to present evidence and witnesses, and cross-examine–that are necessary to ferret out the truth, uncover the lies, and protect the accused.
But we cannot allow those responsible for inflicting so much harm to escape unexamined and unscathed. If they are as righteous as they claim, they will emerge not merely unbowed, but elevated. If they are not, they deserve public obloquy. Or worse.
But it’s about more than exposing the culpable. It’s about showing how the system operates. How the unelected and unaccountable wield powers–awesome powers–not granted by the Constitution or laws. Until we know how the system operates, we cannot know what needs to be changed.
Bureaucratic usurpation is a fact of American life. COVID policy represents what is hopefully an extreme example of such usurpations, and hence can provide insights to the system that people will care about, and pay attention to. So it is not for the past–because sunk costs are sunk–but for the future the American people need to know what happened, who did it, and why.
So lustration. Sooner rather than later.