Louis XIV famously declared, “L’etat, c’est moi” (I am the state).

His was not an idle boast, for, indeed, all privilege and power in France concentrated in that one person. The king had clustered the once fractious aristocrats at Versailles, where they pathetically vied with one another for his fickle favor.

In America, the federal government’s bureaucrats have concentrated uncontested power to a point where they can, with one voice, boldly proclaim, “L’etat, c’est nous.”

Even a news junkie like myself can be pardoned for having missed their ascendancy. After all, aren’t our federal employees civil “servants”? Don’t these benevolent trolls toil selflessly in public “service”? Aren’t federal agents above political passions, devoted to the wise and evenhanded regulation of free markets and free citizenry? Don’t elected officials keep careful watch over and tight rein on any drift toward mal-, mis- and nonfeasance among the civil servant corps?

No.

I also have a disabling preoccupation with President Obama. Watching him collapse the economy amidst a soaring national debt and stressing out over the imposition of Obamacare felt like the big stuff. After all, could there exist something more noteworthy than the president’s steady transformation of America into a broken, socialist dystopia?

Yes.

We may see fewer Democrats after the election, but I’ve come to believe that won’t matter much now. The arrogant likes of former IRS official Lois Learner and current IRS Commissioner John Koskinen run America these days. Their contempt for elected officials and the constitutional freedoms parades past several congressional investigation committees.

The state, it’s them.

Leonard Hoy, Greenwood