Note: Dr. Vliet is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, AAPS.
After being fired by Attorney General Sessions on March 16, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe claimed: “This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally.”
The Washington Post quoted McCabe saying: “The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people.” Though blaming Trump, in reality, McCabe is describing his own behavior at the FBI.
The view through the lens of McCabe’s victimhood mentality is quite different from reality. His own FBI Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) concluded that he had lied to internal investigators, a recognized firing offense, and recommended to the attorney general that McCabe be fired. Does McCabe think that the FBI code of conduct does not apply to him?
McCabe’s loss of his taxpayer-paid pension is a consequence of his own choices and actions. Even so, he has already reaped a hefty return on his “investment” of 20 years working for the government. Although only 50 years old, he has amassed a net worth of a reported $11 million on a government salary of roughly $180,000.
McCabe’s blame-casting is just one example of a widespread disease – the mindset of victimhood, denial of reality and denial of responsibility for his individual actions – that is weakening America from within, like a cancer. He displays the common liberal delusional belief that he “did nothing wrong, others are to blame,” and that an attack on him is an attack on whole FBI. He accuses President Trump of attacking him personally and depriving him of a pension to which he feels entitled.
We see many other examples in recent news:
- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, still blaming others for her loss in the 2016 election, took her victimhood speech to India while ironically calling for empowerment of women.
- Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel went on national television and social media blaming the National Rifle Association and Republicans for the Parkland shooting, when his own Obama-era policies had led to ignoring Nikolas Cruz’s violent behavior history, enabling him to pass a criminal background check and purchase a firearm. Moreover, his own four deputies, trained and armed, had failed to enter the school and protect innocent lives.
- Former President Obama spent eight years blaming his predecessor for the “mess” he inherited, and now shifts the blame to President Trump – never mentioning his own responsibility in Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Uranium One, the surge of illegal border crossers, the rise in crime in his own city of Chicago, the rash of cop-killings, the surge in targeting of conservatives and Christians, or policies that destroyed middle-class jobs and diminished economic growth.
- California Gov. Jerry Brown refuses to admit that his own policies, such as creating a “sanctuary state” (i.e. a state that harbors fugitives from U.S. immigration laws) and expanding social benefits for illegals, are the primary cause of California’s rise in crime, financial crisis, public-health threats and high taxes.
- Democrats continue to push for government-controlled “health care,” blaming insurance companies and Republicans for Obamacare’s completely predictable cost escalations and patients’ loss of doctors.
Liberal progressive ideology no longer values individual responsibility to follow rules, obey laws, or be held accountable for consequences of our actions. Liberals have permeated America with the mindset that everyone is a victim. That someone else is to blame for what happens to us. Their worldview is now pervasive in health care, banking, immigration, school policies, all levels of government, law enforcement and the judiciary.
This victimhood mentality, running rampant through our culture denies reality and overturns the principles on which America was founded: Individual responsibility, self-reliance and equality under the law. Governmental officials who violate the law should face the same consequences as ordinary Americans. They should be held to the same standards and face the same level of scrutiny.
The reality is that “liberal” – socialist – policies have consistently failed:
- Collectivized agriculture (socialism) failed at Jamestown Island, Virginia, and led to the “Starving Times” of 1609-1611, long before the spectacular global failures (Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and others).
- “Single-payer” government-controlled “free” medical care has already failed in America with the Indian Health Service and the Veterans Affairs Department, both with long delays, substandard medical care and premature deaths.
- “Gun control” (banning guns) failed at the infamous OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, in the early 1880s, long before “gun-free zones” (schools, colleges, churches, movie theaters, nightclubs, some offices) have become the killing field of choice for disturbed fanatics today.
Our founders wrote the Second Amendment to protect the individual right to self-defense. But they also held the view that citizens had a responsibility to help protect their neighbors, communities and country. They knew the reality that we are painfully rediscovering after the Parkland, Florida, shooting: “Government” is not always available or reliable to protect individuals. National Review’s Jay Cost wrote that our Second Amendment was not just “a selfish right to bear weapons for oneself, but a public-spirited right to ensure that citizens could defend the polity without recourse to omnipotent, unaccountable armed forces.” The Texas church shooting and other situations have shown how this community responsibility to bear arms has saved lives when armed, trained citizens on the scene acted bravely while waiting for law enforcement to arrive.
McCabe, Clinton and their cronies are the tip of the iceberg of those who chose to violate the rules and are now trying to cast the blame on others. Now coming to light is the enormity of abuse of the public trust under the previous administration:
- the weaponization of federal agencies targeting political opponents, and
- the merger of leftism and lawlessness, creating a Marxist “monarchy” instead of our constitutional republic.
Liberty is not just the freedom to act as we please and then shift blame to others when we don’t like the consequences of our actions. Liberty involves principled realism built on the foundation of a moral authority, personal integrity and self-responsibility.
Good physicians help patients take responsibility for their health. Speaking as a physician, the prescription for the victimology disease infecting our country is a large dose of individual responsibility and accountability, with a return to equal justice under the law.