The FBI and the Whitmer-Michigan Plot Viewed Through the Flawed Lens of Libertarianism

Though this story has already faded away from the news cycle it will return and there are some elements concerning it that deserve reflection. 

 

The argument concerning the Whitmer Plot and the notion that the FBI was ultimately behind it, is tricky because there is a precedent that can be appealed to. The FBI is notorious for entrapping people, in fact most of the 'terrorists' that have been paraded on the news over the past decade and more were never any threat - or even actual terrorists for that matter. They were isolated types on the Internet seeking connections and attention. Some had flirted with radical ideas but were ultimately picked up and set up by FBI provocateurs who all but concocted the plots and facilitated them. These people would have never been a threat had they not been groomed and set up. Their real crime was thought-crime and yet it's enough to send them away and for the FBI to get a feather in its cap – a 'win' as they say which includes the victory lap of a press conference, and flowery stats to fill their CV's.

So, was the Whitmer Plot just another case of entrapment? Were these a bunch of dumb and gullible types who were provoked and manipulated into a plot that the FBI then took down? Aside from another FBI 'win', the argument suggests that it's part of a larger Deep State agenda meant to smear the Right-wing and discredit it.

Again, the FBI's record is dubious. If you actually spend some time studying the organisation there are many bodies, buried secrets, cover-ups, and the like. And yet in this case I don't buy it. The plot was real.

These were serious types that had already committed themselves to a violent path. Trump and Trumpism have generated a social crisis and for many in extremist circles, the hour was getting desperate. They honestly believe that Covid was (and perhaps is) being used as part of some grand communist plot to re-engineer American society. It must also be remembered that radicalism in Michigan and its militia movement is nothing new. The state's militia movement has connections to the Oklahoma City Bombing – another FBI scandal and partial cover-up. Once again, my intention here is not to exonerate the FBI. Though the organisation has a long record of corruption and immorality, it doesn't mean that there aren't criminal conspiracies out there. There most certainly are.

With regard to those who are sticking to the provocateur angle, I think this is a case of affection for Trumpian iconoclasm blinding these commentators to the real danger of the Right and the GOP's drift into fascism under Trump.

They are enjoying and even relishing the Establishment and the Left being driven to a state of befuddlement and literal stuttering at the antics of Trump and his larger circle. There is a degree of humour to it all, I will admit. But it's more in the realm of irony and wry cynicism – a dog and pony show, an obscene spectacle or a seeming case of 'karma' coming back to bite as it were.

The glee in witnessing Trumpian iconoclasm entails a failure to see that while the Establishment is bad and deserves to be destroyed – sometimes what brings it down and replaces it can be worse. While the Establishment and its deeds are evil sometimes chaos or other unleashed evils can actually be more dangerous. While I wouldn't lament to see the American Establishment fall and the breaking of the US system, I would not want to see the event take place at the hands of Trumpism or to put it differently, to see it merely replaced by chaos and Trumpism – that's nothing to celebrate.

Libertarians, while falling far short of Christian ethics nevertheless have been perceptive in picking up on state corruption and hypocrisy. It is on these points they actually find a degree of resonance with Leftist critiques of the state. Both Libertarians and the Left (the real Left, not the DNC or people like Sanders and Warren) work to expose state corruption and hypocrisy, and have long been hostile to institutions like the FBI, CIA, and the Pentagon. The Left often (or at least did at one time) asks the right questions but often has the wrong answers and solutions. The same can be said for the Libertarian movement. The ideology is commendable in terms of critique but in terms of what they propose as the architectural structure of society or the solutions to its problems, theirs is no solution at all. In the end, they are driven by ideology and caught in the same ivory tower traps that they accuse the Leftists of falling prey to. But in the case of the Libertarianism there's another danger. While critical of the Right and its doctrines of consolidated power and as well as its organising principles, they miss the point (in spectacular fashion) that power abhors a vacuum and that a laissez faire system can only function on a local level and for a very short time. Power always steps into the gap. And if it's not the state it's something else – a warlord, a mafia, or a corporation. Either way, society is quickly taken back down the same road. It's the nature of things in a fallen world. Christians understand this – or at least they should. Instead we find people within the Church literally swarming toward the Libertarian camp and its anti-Christian ethos – an ethos that in many ways is actually more anti-Christian than what is proposed by the Left!

But I digress – somewhat. It's important to understand where the Libertarians are coming from when they suggest the Whitmer Plot was but an FBI ploy. It's not a groundless claim but a mistaken one. To put it bluntly, a lot of Libertarians are short-sighted. The most surprising player in all this is Glenn Greenwald. While I applaud his break with The Intercept and his rejection of its slippage into becoming a mouthpiece for the DNC, I am appalled by his waxing Libertarian impulse. While it has always been there, it has led him to increasingly take a quasi-Trumpite line and it has led him to forge new friendships and affiliations with the FOX sphere – which has unfortunately destroyed much of his credibility – certainly in his former Intercept circles and among those who appreciate his unique and probing insight.

In this case, we cannot let the FBI's record of corruption and mendacity allow us to dismiss what is a real and present danger. The militia movement is on the rise and for the first time in modern American history it's connected to an iconoclastic political demagogue. That's dangerous and it would be even more dangerous if that figure was someone more serious. Though Trump is incompetent and a buffoon who doesn't know how to lead or implement his ideas (or more correctly his will) he can still do a lot of damage. He'll pass from the scene soon enough but the wreckage and carnage he leaves behind may very well facilitate something worse and far more serious.

Again, I don't say this as one who's particularly worried about America or wishes to preserve its supposed 'greatness'. These are not my concerns. I am concerned about what these movements and ideas are doing to the Church and how they have infiltrated it, and how professing Christians are being caught up in the frenzied moment and are teaching and promoting anti-Christian ethics as if they were Scriptural. The Church will be dealing with the fallout from this for a long time and things may get much worse before this trajectory is arrested – let alone corrected and remedied. The threat is real and as Christians we need to be thinking about how to respond if the bullets start flying. Society is being torn apart as the nation creeps toward Civil War. In the nineteenth century the Church was also torn apart and it's about to happen again. And once again the New Testament position leaves the faithful Christian in the wilderness as both of the main factions (just as before) represent aberrant theology and ethics. There were a few voices who spoke out then and let's hope there are sound voices that will speak out now and in the days to come.