In the discussions that I am part of and in the materials that I read, I don't find an adequate expression of outrage about the current IRS scandal.
We have an instance in which a large number of IRS employees, at the direction of management, apply political criteria to the operation of the IRS.
Individuals and groups were (1) selectively chosen for harassment, (2) their private data was released to political opponents and (3) the entire process was the subject of partisan activity.
This would bother me if it were the actions of the local park and recreation agency or the state licensing agency.
But it rises the level of outrage when the IRS is the agency being directed by partisan interests.
The IRS has the power to totally destroy an individual. It can jail them for a minor infraction as was the case with Al Capone. It can close a business and put a lock on the door with no warning. It can completely freeze bank accounts and investments. An individuals lifeline to survival. It can demand private records and can seize them even it they are vital to daily livelihood.
This is the power to totally disrupt the life of an individual or a family or a business. And the IRS does it 100 times a day. This is not a trivial use of government power.
Moreover, for the people who can read American history, it is possible to read eight out of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution as a specific protection against that type of behavior exhibited by the IRS. The right to free association, to keep the government out of our homes, to a trial by jury.
If you read the Declaration of Independence you will find that the complaints against King George and the British government in the colonies were specifically complaints that match the horrible misuse of power that we find in the IRS.
With any common sense about power, with a rudimentary sense of justice, it should be clear that the IRS scandal is one of the greatest outrages in American history since ratification on June 21st 1788.