By Joseph Carvalko | 15 January 2026
Church and State
SINCE ANCIENT TIMES men have memorialized through writings engraved in the edifices of government, memorialized in the thoughts passed from ruler to ruler, memorialized in the legacies of war and the charters of the ruling institutions, the clearest of all messages: power survives; not goodness, not compliance, not compassion— power. The power to act, to impose change, or to halt the natural course of events. One need not be well read to understand this; even Trump, by instinct rather than study, grasps that law is not merely a symbol of justice or order. It is an instrument of power. Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” finds its modern expression in laws that authorize the creation, preservation, and destruction of competing forces. Laws that moderate the state’s tendency to restrain our rights today can justify denying our rights tomorrow. Yet we cling to law over anarchy—or do we?
Patrick Henry warned us in his immortal cry for liberty: we are prone to “shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the siren song that transforms us into beasts.” His question—Is this the part of wise men? —echoes today as U.S. senators look away while ICE mauls and kills American citizens under the pretext of removing “the worst of the worst.”
Is it politics that silences them? Or cowardice?
The Founders understood that unchecked police power breeds tyranny, and tyranny breeds chaos, destruction, and ultimately national collapse. Observing Trump’s actions—domestically and abroad—we would be naïve to assume we are immune to that trajectory.
Americans are not ignorant. They know what has happened in Putin’s Russia and Orbán’s Hungary. Yet many forget how swiftly a democracy can slide into dictatorship. It can happen here.
The purpose of a free government is the public good. All lesser interests must yield to it. Immigration enforcement cannot claim legitimacy if its “success” depends on assaulting or killing anyone—least of all American citizens like Renee Good.
The foundations of a strong democracy are not mysterious. People expect two simple things: security for the vulnerable and the preservation of civil liberties for all. The strength of our political system depends entirely on how faithfully government meets those expectations. We elected representatives to defend them. Instead, we hear only silence when advocacy is most needed.
These basic principles must not be lost amid the turmoil created by unprecedented ICE actions.
History teaches that tyrannical governments fixate on the aggrandizement of one person—or a small wealthy elite—rather than the public. Today, Trump seeks to intimidate law abiding citizens, especially those in states that did not support him. His political style thrives on domination: drawing people in, cowing them, and ultimately subduing them. We see this pattern daily.
On immigration and ICE enforcement, this strategy has succeeded even in the Senate, where outrage should be immediate and unrelenting. Instead, we hear little.
Trump claims to defend liberty by closing borders and deporting “the worst of the worst.” This rhetoric has been eagerly embraced by bigots and racists and has served to flatter the impulses of his most fervent supporters. Now, tyranny, oppression, and even killing are rewarded with loyalty and applause.
At this moment Tyranny, oppression and murder are being rewarded with the affection, veneration and the loyalty of MAGA. It apparently approves of ICE mayhem.
Roy Cohn taught Donald Trump three rules:
1. Never admit when you're wrong
2. Never concede defeat when you lose
3. Attack anyone who attacks you even when you're wrong.50 years later – in 2026 America – we are living under the insanity and tyranny of those three rules. pic.twitter.com/ESKpWxexax
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 10, 2026
The concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial power in the hands of one individual is the textbook definition of tyranny. Yet Americans have allowed an overgrown political “monster” to operate dictatorially. History makes clear that unprincipled leaders, if given the slightest opening, will seize control of every organ of government—the military, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, the legislature—and use that power against the people.
Congress, especially the Senate, must push back. The Senate must rise. Silence is complicity.
The abuses committed by ICE against Americans resemble the acts of mobsters, not legitimate law enforcement. They racially profile suspects, arrest without warrants, destroy property, shower peaceful protesters with tear gas and pepper spray, routinely incarcerate U.S. citizens, and beat their targets, during apprehension. They are unworthy of a free nation. We need law, not lawlessness of the kind that crisscrossed 20th century Soviet Union, East Germany, Spain and Romania. All used deputized thugs as instruments of state power to suppress dissent through state-sanctioned violence, and instill fear as a tool of governance, where actions, even murder, lacked investigative and judicial oversight.
Thomas More, in A Man for All Seasons, reminds us why the law matters: he would “give the devil benefit of the law” for his own safety’s sake. The law protects us only when it is applied with integrity—not as a weapon of fear. ICE is unworthy of a free nation.
We need more than lip service from elected officials. Those who lived through the civil rights movement remember representatives who locked arms and confronted the enemies of equality. Today, not one legislator has offered a concrete plan to confront ICE’s abuses.
It is time for courage. I call on several dozen U.S. senators—joined by civilians and chiefs of police from America’s largest cities—to travel to Minneapolis and confront ICE face to face.
Between Two Eternities: Inscriptions Buried in an Awakened Heart by Joseph Carvalko. https://t.co/4X5oPVFFz5
— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) October 9, 2024
Joe Carvalko on the Intersection of Law, Science, and Technology
‘Another Step On The March To Tyranny’: Lloyd Doggett Accuses Trump Of Using Data To Track Americans
The First Signs of Tyranny, From People Who Missed Them | NYT Opinion
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