(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party, or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)
In the last four years, Americans have experienced an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of government power — in responses to COVID-19, 2020 alleged election irregularities, the Jan. 6 protest, and open borders.
We now find ourselves living in an America having more in common with a banana republic than the constitutional republic that has defined us previously for some 230 years.
Recent developments suggest that this could be a prelude of worse to come.
Many rightfully sense that the open border policy of the Biden-Harris administration, best described by the U.N. term "replacement migration," has been driven by a sort of unprecedented anti-American wickedness.
An agenda seemingly designed to destabilize the United States by overwhelming our health, education, and welfare systems, while bringing on skewed election results, from a spike in illegal immigrant voting.
Additionally, we have become the number one country globally in human and child trafficking, criminal gang activity, and seeding our territory for insurrection and direct terrorist attacks.
Then we have the backdrop, accomplished just a few months ago, that gave a veneer of legitimacy to our nation’s transition of power.
Did Joe Biden voluntarily choose to not run for another term, or was Kamala Harris anointed, by powerful political forces overwhelming our nation's 46th president?
Nonetheless, it's still akin to Banana Republic 2.0.
Even more ominous is a recent development, in the form of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 5240.01, and the revisions recently made to it August 27 and Sept. 27, 2024, which now authorize and expand the reach of military power on U.S. soil.
This recent development has extremely serious implications.
When most think about military power being used in America, they think about foreign threats, with the military being directed against adversaries outside our borders.
But what would happen if this directive would turn American military power inward?
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, passed after the Civil War during reconstruction, was enacted to prevent that possibility, specifically limiting the federal government’s ability to use the armed forces for domestic law enforcement, and to prevent any blurring of the line between the military and police.
Despite the insurmountable wall of Posse Comitatus barring federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement, the updated DoD Directive 5240.01 loosens the criteria for use of deadly force by the U.S. military on American civilians.
Additionally, it creates a fast-track process authorizing the military to act in chaotic situations which might be associated with groups’ exercise of their right to peacefully assemble and protest — a constitutionally protected First Amendment right.
The current DoD Directive 5240.01 sets up a system that provides rapid transition to military action; it reads like playbook for long-term domestic military engagement.
If we get accustomed to seeing the military in public places on U.S. soil to keep or restore order or confront civil disturbances, when and where would that end?
Would we then be subjects in a national security state, not a republic?
What's alarming about the language of the Aug. 27 update of 5240.01 is the mandate for readiness for large-scale unrest, authorizing the military to assist in "civil disturbances" in which there is a perceived threat to public safety.
But "public safety" is a subjective term.
Those with the task of enforcing it might have political bias or simply err, as they did in the 1967 Detroit riots, Kent State University in 1970, and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 —following the acquittal of the police officers in the Rodney King beating.
The situation in America now is further complicated and problematic because the country is more divided than at any time since the Civil War.
Also, leadership of DHS and FEMA, the DoD, the FBI, the CIA, and even the U.S. Secret Service seem to have become politically compromised.
If civil unrest breaks out in the U.S., perhaps resulting from disputes over voting, or those emanating from provocateur elements from China or Hezbollah, and/or terrorists from Venezuela purportedly in the U.S., the stage could be set for deep state political operatives to take advantage of the chaos and fog of confusion, manipulating public opinion to blame Trump supporters.
Would this in turn justify their mass round up and arrest by the military?
If former President Donald Trump is elected on Nov. 5, might this be used to deny Donald Trump an Inaugural on Jan. 20, 2025?
Would we see a nullification of Nov. 2024, and our constitutional republic, a nation's republican government supplanted by one of emergency measures and martial law?
Yet, we must never forget that God has the power to remove corrupt leaders and defeat evil. Psalm 94:23 reminds us that "He has brought back their wickedness upon them and will destroy them in their evil; The Lord our God will destroy them."
In Luke 13:30, we confront the great reversal that God orchestrates wherein everything we know is turned upside down, "Behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."
Our Christian Founders who drafted the Constitution of the United States created an anti-elite government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
On Nov. 5, lets choose to vote for the "great reversal," and bring back the rule of law, freedom, civility, and peace.
The choice is still ours.
(A related article may be found here.)
Scott S. Powell, a member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China and senior fellow at Discovery Institute, is the author of "Rediscovering America," a new release in the history genre. You may reach him at scottp@discovery.org. Read Scott S. Powell's Reports — More Here.