Corruption and Desperation

Allow me to opine a bit about corruption as it exists in the current political context.

Government waste, fraud, and abuse is about as ubiquitous as stink on a hog.  We all know that.  But it takes character to stand against it, and the strength of will to take the incoming flak one will inevitably encounter when rooting it out from the entrenched bureaucracy, what is often referred to as 'deep state', the 'swamp', or the 4th branch of government.

Enter President Trump.  Playing the tripartite role of master strategist, troll, and wrecking ball, he enlisted the help of Elon Musk and some of the most brilliant young people in Musk's organization.  Within days, they descended like avenging angels to expose and root out the corruption.

And did they find corruption!  As Matthew Hennessey wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, "Even Ronald Reagan, the great apostle of smaller government, couldn’t achieve in eight years what Mr. Musk has done in 3½ weeks." *

In a sane universe, these guys would be welcomed as heroes - from the left, right, and center.  But as we've seen in the present cynical political climate, normalcy and common sense - especially from the party of the far left - has become increasingly less common.

So, what was the response of the political left?   It was as if they all got free tickets to ride the Crazy Train - or perhaps more accurately - they simply feared their train was about to run out of gravy.

Forced into the unenviable position of choosing between defending government waste, fraud, and abuse - or - losing their most important source of power - the enduring, deep state bureaucracy, Democrats have sided with waste, fraud, and abuse and against the taxpayer.  As Reince Priebus so succinctly put it on a network news show recently:  "Democrats have found themselves on the wrong side of normal." (ABC News’ “This Week” - 02/16/25)

I suppose one could hope that Democrats could eventually be counted on to do the right thing.  "...once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” (to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill)  But to hold that view would be to live in the past. That's the Democrat party of 50 years ago.  That's your grandfather's Democrat party, not this one.

In one of the few times since the end of the Reagan presidency, Trump's brand of conservative populism has the Democrat's backs up against the wall, as their traditional constituencies abandon them.  Cornered to the point of facing complete political irrelevance, they still refuse to abandon their radicalism or even cosmetically reinvent themselves.  And what's worse (for them), their old playbook which served them well for so many decades, is no longer working.

To clarify, the old Democrat party playbook of class warfare, racial division, and name calling simply no longer resonates with the electorate.  Their radical, discredited, and unpopular agenda has been categorically rejected by thinking persons.  And now, with Elon Musk and his band of boy geniuses starting to expose the depth and breadth of their corrupt sources of power, they are losing control of the deep state-saturated institutions that have propped them up even when they were not in power.

The left's desperation is palpable.  You can see it illustrated in their hilarious antics:  starting with Chuck Schumer's poorly scripted pre-SuperBowl Corona and avocado stunt, then it was Maxine Waters' January 6th-like mob which unsuccessfully stormed the gates of the Dept of Education, Ocasio-Cortez's webinars coaching criminal aliens how to avoid arrest, or finally, Jasmine Crockett's voicing the quiet part out loud when she proclaimed last week that she was rooting for Canada and Mexico over her own country.

If they continue on the present course, they will be well on their way to making the term "Democrat" just another synonym for "corruption."  But then again, we probably shouldn't be surprised that the Democrat party would be on the side of corruption.

We just lived through 4 years of what is arguably the most lawless and corrupt regime in US history.  It was so corrupt that Biden shuffled out the door having to pardon practically his entire family to keep them out of jail - for influence paddling, tax evasion, foreign espionage violations, and gun crimes.  (Even Nixon didn't pardon his family and co-conspirators.)  Biden went on to pardon his confidants and members of Nancy Pelosi's kangaroo impeachment Court.  On top of that, he incomprehensibly, and likely unwittingly, granted commutations to a convicted killer of FBI agents, mass murderers, and even a child killer.

During the Biden regime, we saw the emergence of lawfare, politicizing the Justice Department to persecute his political opponents, the Catholic church, and parents, the abandonment of U.S. hostages in Gaza, giving FEMA funds to illegal aliens, and the surrender of the southern border to the Mexican cartels.

We saw frontal assaults on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 10th amendments, fully supported by Congressional Democrats.

We saw our 'Mr. Magoo-like' President, stumbling and bumbling from one national security disaster, assault on our freedom, or public relations gaffe to the next.  He mumbled incomprehensibly, shook hands with imaginary friends, fell asleep in meetings with international leaders, and needed help finding his way from the podium or off the stage.  Then this would be followed up by a prevaricating presidential press secretary telling us we shouldn't believe our lying eyes or listen to our lying ears about his sad mental and physical decline. 

So don't expect a mea culpa.  Don't anticipate any apologies.  Don't expect token course corrections - much less a policy reversal.  Especially don't expect sincere soul-searching when their much cherished source of  corruption is threatened.  It is far more likely that they will continue down the same failed, but familiar, path - to lie, cheat, and steal to protect their waste, fraud, and abuse.

 

 

 

*    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/democrats-ought-to-love-doge-big-government-cleanup-efficiency-policy-5a87dd80