EPA’s Latest Act of Soft Despotism Against the American People

The Environmental Protection Agency is using shaky science to tighten regulations on ambient levels of tiny particulate matter in the air—from dust to fireplace smoke to car exhaust—in other words, essential byproducts of industrial activity and daily life. If the final rule, which is expected in the coming months, is anything like the proposed rule, the EPA will continue to give itself increasing authority to regulate more of American life.

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in “Democracy in America” about a soft despotism in which the ruling class covers society with a network of complicated rules until the people become “a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”

The problem today may be worse than what Tocqueville saw—the EPA is abusing our timidity, and it may not even allow us to be industrious anymore.