Elizabeth Price Foley highlights something that might have been easy to miss in the drama of recent racial rioting:

Al Sharpton is calling for the creation of a national police force. And it looks like President Obama is considering the option. While the federal government undoubtedly lacks a “police power” and the concomitant authority to create a national police force, it does have a “spending power,” implied from the Constitution’s enumerated power to levy taxes, and the Supreme Court has upheld the imposition of “strings,” or conditions, on the receipt of federal funds.

Sort of like Common Core or the many federal programs that have led states simply to implement federal policy, with some local latitude at the margins, such policies would effectively nationalize police forces that take the deal.

Now, I’m not saying President Obama and the Democrats are deliberately following the textbook steps for taking totalitarian control over a previously democratic country, but these are one set of steps nonetheless:

1. Stoke divisions along national, class, religious, or racial lines.
2. Foster an environment in which chaos and violence come to feel endemic.
3. Propose a nationalized solution that gives control over police forces to a central authority and excuses crackdowns on people’s rights.

Powerline notes that police shootings are actually extremely rare, particularly if narrowed down to those that aren’t clearly justified, and yet, they are dominating the news to the extent that they’re sparking (or providing pretense for) riots.

Really, it’s time to wake up from the hopenchange daydreams.