We've all been aware of the stories about the FBI arresting conservatives — and by that, I don't mean the way the FBI has hunted down every granny and veteran who, made ignorant by the systematic removal of "no trespassing" signs and fencing, and the Capitol Police holding open doors, entered the Capitol and wandered around reverently.  That's bad enough.  But the FBI is also going after high-level, high-profile political operatives (advisers, politicians, journalists) who have dared challenge Biden's rise to the White House.  On Wednesday, Tucker Carlson finally put together a list of the brutal, humiliating, seemingly lawless arrests, and it's really shocking.

What you see in Tucker's opening monologue is something I don't believe we've ever seen before in America: a presidential administration is systematically using its police power to intimidate the political opposition at the highest levels.  As Tucker points out, Democrats have declared every successful Republican presidential election illegitimate since Bush in 2000, but no Republican administration has ever used its police power to silence these people.

Democrats, though, are enamored of the police state.  Obama spied on both the Senate and journalists.  Then, probably heartened by the minimal pushback, he authorized spying on a presidential candidate — and got away with it.

No wonder, then, that the Biden Department of Justice feels that it can raid the homes of politicians, political operatives, and journalists, smashing their doors, leaving them humiliated on the sidewalk, tossing the contents of their houses, and stealing all of their electronic devices, or that it can arrest people close to Trump, always making sure to do so in the most humiliating, demeaning way possible, and without even bothering to show the warrants authorizing this police activity.

And that's how we end up with this:

A friend and I routinely have the same conversation. Whenever we hear about these illegal and unconstitutional actions, he says, "It's not enough that these things make the news.  We need to name the names of the people behind this stuff.  And then the people involved need to be fired and, if possible, prosecuted."

I invariably respond, "Who's going to do it?  Merrick Garland's DOJ?"

To which he inevitably replies, "Well, I know nothing's going to happen now, but when Trump or DeSantis is in the White House, they need to do something."

At which point I offer one of two responses.  Either "Republicans never do anything, so don't hold your breath" or "That's assuming there'll ever be another Republican president.  This is Stasi stuff (or, maybe, I'll say Maoist or Stalinist stuff) and it's the road to a permanent hold on power."

And then I always add, "God forbid.  I hope that never happens here."  But frankly, when you see all the arrests and harassment laid out as Tucker did, it really does seem as if it could happen here.

Image: Rounding up political dissidents.  YouTube screen grab.