After the Civil War, the United States saw a rise in economic expansion that blazed the nation through the Industrial Revolution.  This expansion continued until the early 1890s, when a financial panic caused millions to withdraw money from banks forcing them to close.  The Panic of 1893 lead to the layoff of Polish immigrant, Leon Czolgosz who turned to Anarchism, a political philosophy that is anti-authority and all centralized power.  This ideology eventually lead Czolgosz to assassinate recently re-elected President, William McKinley in 1901.  Upon McKinley’s assassination, his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, felt it necessary for the government to be able to track and monitor the rise of Anarchism and other internal threats to the United States Government.  By the end of his Administration and mostly without congressional approval, Roosevelt created the Bureau of Investigation, a new wing of the Department of Justice, staffed in part by former Secret Service agents.

Within the decade, the Justice Department hired a recent grad from George Washington University Law School named John Edgar Hoover, whose first job was to investigate, arrest and jail foreign dissenters without trial during World War I.  Soon, Hoover became the Director of the Bureau’s General Intelligence Division with the goal of monitoring and harassing domestic agitators like Marcus Garvey, future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and the very Anarchist that inspired Leon Czolgosz himself, Emma Goldman.  Not long after and because of the Teapot Dome Scandal, which is STILL the second most notable presidential scandal in history behind Watergate, Hoover was named Acting Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and soon became it’s Director and eventually renamed it the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Over the next four decades, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI became one of the more powerful and accomplished forces within America.  Under Hoover’s leadership, the Bureau’s power was augmented by successes in combating the rise of gangs and public enemies such as “Ma” Barker, “Baby Face” Nelson, “Machine Gun” Kelly and John Dillinger.  After World War II, Hoover and the FBI turned it’s attention to matters of national security and increased it’s monitoring and investigations of elements within the United States that Hoover himself deemed a danger to America.  This began with Nazism and similar nationalist movements, but this eventually lead to Communism, Socialism and other marginalized political ideologies or those who held similar political views.  The FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program, or as it became known as “COINTELPRO” was created to surveil, infiltrate, disrupt and ultimately discredit social and political organizations and figures at the time.  While the program was used to combat the influence of the Klu Klux Klan in the South(mostly to the chagrin of the Director), the FBI also targeted others fighting for Civil Rights and social justice as well.  This included the NAACP, SCLC, Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and even within the White House itself.  Furthermore, what began as rather innocuous investigations and intelligence gathering would allow Hoover to obtain detailed files on many prominent Americans in all institutions including business, entertainment, politics and government.   J. Edgar Hoover used this information for his own personal gain for the duration of his life as the Director of the FBI.

Illegal searches, political intimidation, extensive blackmail and more unconstitutional activities was what the Federal Bureau of Investigation was all about since it’s inception.  And this is the same organization that has now turned it’s attention to our 2016 Presidential Election and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

With the election right around the corner, polling, logic, reality and pretty much God’s will has Hillary Clinton poised to win and become the nation’s 45th President of the United States.  However, this eventuality has been put into jeopardy with a controversy of a email server used by Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.  Sadly most Americans really do not know the genesis of this investigation.  They can’t point to what crime was committed(Hint: none).  They largely conflate this controversy with another Wikileaks  controversy that has targeting the Democratic Party and Clinton campaign staff.  The massive gaps of information and ignorance of the public has been filled by a conservative campaign machine that has called her a criminal worthy to be jailed and for not just negligent behavior but for decisively harmful actions to Americans and national security.

Now, the FBI has added to this air of suspicion.

Not to belabor this any further, but for a quick primer of what this is for those who may not know; because of a witch hunt of hurt feelings Republicans had over finally punishing someone over a terrorist attack in Libya(as if the USS Cole, Twin Towers and Pentagon aren’t sufficient reasons for accountability), they deemed it necessary to investigate then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was completely open with them, in which they found nothing they could blame her for.  What they did find out was that she did use a private email server to conduct government business.  For those that don’t know, in certain levels of government, to protect the privacy of individuals and the government, employees are typically not authorized to conduct government business on private or commercial devices, which cannot be fully protected.  This causes employees to have to have specific devices, smartphones and computers to conduct government business.  Hillary Clinton, who is married to a former President of the United States and was the cabinet secretary of another sought the convenience of streamlining those devices to allow her more accessibility to do her job.  Well as it turns out she was not allowed to do that.

Should she not have done it?  Yes.  Was it negligent and and careless?  Probably.  Was it criminal?  No.

The FBI concluded as much earlier this year when they were tasked with investigating the use of the server by the State Department(not just Secretary Clinton).  In July of this year, the now Director of the FBI, James Comey released their findings of the investigation and concluded there was insufficient evidence and no credible reason to move forward with criminal proceedings.  Comey found just 110 of well over tens of thousand emails sent were classified and none of those 11o were even marked that way.  Moreover, there was no evidence of tampering or any attempt to hide or withhold further evidence.  That should have been the end of the story(at least for those of us who live in reality), but this never sat well with many Republicans.

Two months later, in September, while separately investigating former congressman, Anthony Wiener, it was discovered that Hillary Clinton aid Huma Abedin had used a computer owned by Wiener, which had other emails connected to Hillary Clinton.  What is still unknown is the relevance of those emails.  Republicans want proof that Hillary Clinton is Giselda Blanco.  Democrats want proof that this is the politically motivated witch hunt they assumed it is afterall.  The FBI cannot tell the public neither.  What the FBI personnel did tell the public via Hillary Clinton’s opponent, is of yet separate information involving an investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s charity, the Clinton Foundation, which was reported to likely lead to an indictment.  A story, which happened to be false.  Oh and by the way, this investigation was prompted by a book written by supporters of Hillary Clinton’s opponent as well.

Is the Federal Bureau of Investigation actively playing a role to influence a political election?  Some would argue not.  But given their history and given the current wave of misinformation and bad reporting directly from the FBI, you’re going to have a hard time getting many others to believe otherwise.  They have played the part of outside agitators before and harassed those they saw as political enemies.  With the kind of history they have, the FBI deserves to be questioned for their conduct.

So here it is….

2,000 years ago, Roman poet, Juvenal posed the question, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” It was a question asking about marriage fidelity.  That very question was then used to explain Socrates’ philosophy of political power in Plato’s Republic.  The question translated asks: Who guards the guardians?  If the laws of men dictate a soverign authority to protect or watch out for those it governs, what will protect the governed from those who have the power to protect it?  Who guards the guardians when those guardians refuse their guardianship?  There’s no doubt that recent FBI revelations has given Donald Trump and his campaign a sense of levity days before the election.  It could be enough to actually help him win this election.  It would be a small miracle.  But the FBI has been one the most politically active entities in our federal government.  They were made to watch our political process.  And if the FBI is watching you, who is watching them?