No conspiracy needed!

Monty writes at Ace of Spades,

To succeed in the IRS, an employee must do things the proper way. Entrepreneurs may be appreciated in the private sector, but they are specifically discouraged in the public sector. If you want to get along in government service, you go along. If you can convince yourself that going along is not only the smart thing to do but the right thing, so much the better.

The culture reinforces itself because adherence to the culture is the only way to move up. Dissenters and contrarians do not last long in an organization like the IRS (any more than they do at the FBI or EPA or DoJ).

The organizational culture in American federal service has become not just partisan but positively messianic during the age of Obama -- they're doing it for your own good, whether you know it or not! -- and the urge to suppress those with "wrong" opinions is becoming too strong to ignore. The tacit approval of Barack Obama and other powerful Democrat politicians removes any vestige of unease. It explains the near-complete lack of guilt or remorse shown so far by IRS management. In their minds, they are doing nothing wrong.

It's not a conspiracy because nothing actually has to be planned in secret. Nothing has to be commanded from on high. Nothing has to be written down, or even spoken in plain language. Lois Lerner and Douglas Schulman didn't need detailed marching orders. All the President had to do was muse sadly about how much he could accomplish if only these troublesome Tea Party types were out of the picture. Functionaries like Schulman and Lerner would immediately grasp the message and put it into action. (Even though no discussion along these lines was really necessary, Schulman and President Obama apparently did enjoy their little chats.)

What about corporate culture?

Corporate culture in the private sector is moderated by two controlling forces: external competition, and the need to satisfy customers. A company must be aware of both, and be responsive, lest one go out of business. Ideology must take a back seat to survival.

However, governmental organizations are bound by neither of these strictures and so the pathologies persist and harden into permanent features of the organizations. Instead of being a nonpartisan tax-collection and compliance agency, the IRS becomes an agent of Democrat Party ideology where tax compliance is the tool rather than the purpose of the agency.

Since the IRS will, therefore, not reform from within, what does Monty propose?

The answer is to abolish the agency entirely, and to make a concerted effort to shrink the size and reach of the entire federal government apparatus. For the federal government apparatus is not nonpartisan; it is and will continue to be predominately Democrat in culture. The federal government bureaucracy has been captured by Democrats in almost exactly the same way college campuses were captured.

A partisan government apparatus is a recipe for the abuse of power. To limit a government's power, we must limit its size. The IRS is an excellent place to begin because it presents the closest and greatest danger -- not just to conservatives, but to the very underpinnings of our system of government. An abuse of power this flagrant and egregious cannot be allowed to go unanswered.