Outside and In

There's an old gag that notes there are two types of people in the world: those who divide people into two types, and those who don't. Joke aside, humans are predisposed to that sorting behavior, even and especially in politics. Thing is, for much of history, the actual sorting isn't what we are told. Yes, there are genuine ideological and policy differences between the left and right sides of the aisle, but the underlying difference is "outside" vs "inside." The insiders may spar publicly with each other, but their true disdain is reserved for the outsiders that they consider lesser beings and not deserving of entry into their world.

Even when those outsiders are measurably their peers.

The HBO series The Gilded Age presents New York in the 1870s, where a extremely wealthy industrialist and his wife dare to challenge the old-money and deeply pedigreed blue bloods and their carefully curated “Society." No matter the success, the opulence, the smarts, or the savvy - they simply don't belong.

Yes, their money buys access and the parasites are happy to ride along, but they're still "not us and never will be us."

The gag, of course, is that the insiders are not any better than the outsiders, no matter how much they want us to believe this.

This encapsulates the Trump Presidential saga. Trump, despite hobnobbing with all the political elites across his professional and social career, was not accepted as one of them when he dared veer from the narrative. That he had the temerity to do more than trade money for access (as the political elite expect of all rich people), and in particular deny one of their own the seat that was presumptively hers, is a big part of the reason they've dogged him so relentlessly.

Again, the facade of "we good and upright public servants" vs a "short-fingered vulgarian" outsider. The Dukes vs Billy Ray Johnson at The Heritage Club.

Again, this is all a sham, and it could not have been any more starkly exposed than by Joe Biden pardoning his son after promising not to and haughtily proclaiming "no one is above the law."

The hypocrisy would be breathtaking if we ignore everything we know about politicians and politics. That makes it mundane. You can’t swing a dead cat around DC without hitting a dozen hypocrites.

The Left, fully immersed in their self-righteous delusion, took Biden’s no-pardon proclamation and built an edifice of moral superiority on it.

Oops.

Of course he was going to pardon Hunter. Anyone who actually believed his promise not to was a naive fool, and everyone else who repeated his hollow promise was a liar, or at the very least a tendentious partisan hack. He would have pardoned him even if Harris had won, even he had not been forced out of the election, and even if he himself had won reelection. No chance, at age 82 and with nothing to lose, would he let his wayward son face consequences for his actions, no matter how deserved and no matter how unseemly the pardon would appear. Despite endless puffery and countless assurances of his high moral character from his bootlickers in the legacy media, Biden is as lizard-like a political reptile as there is.

This outside-vs-in phenomenon, as exhibited by the endless pearl-clutching over Trump's second term and his Cabinet and other administration nominations, and especially by his association with the other rich outsider Elon Musk, gives me a cautious optimism that I have not felt in a long time. Putting a bevy of mischief makers and apple cart tippers in positions of power is exactly what we need, and if (as Piers Morgan recently noted) Trump curbs his worst excesses, the nation could enjoy a "great reset" from the inexorable growth of life-encroachment that we've been unable to escape no matter which party was at the helm.

The insiders, of course, won't abide any of this, no matter how good for the country cuts in spending, regulation, and rights-infringement would be. Spending, regulation, and rights-infringement are the source of their power and of their personal fulfillment, after all. So, before Trump even swears into the Presidency, and before any of his picks have had a chance to make a single decision, the derisions flow forth and the panic buttons get mashed over and over.

I choose to wait and see, but I wait with hope rather than dread.

For all his faults, and my disagreement with some of his plans notwithstanding, Trump-as-President actually kept to the promises of Trump-as-candidate his first go-round, and I have every reason to expect the same this time.

Contrast that to Biden, who promised moderation and normalcy but ran hard-left his first day in office. A bait-and-switch for the ages, but totally in line with the "manage them" attitude that political insiders have always had. Rather than serve the public, they expect the public to serve them. By obeying, by returning them to office in those pesky elections that they have to endure every couple years, and by turning a blind eye to their streams of shenanigans. Need I remind you that it's perfectly legal for congresspersons to engage in insider trading, to leverage their knowledge of pending legislation to enrich themselves? In the interest of brevity, I will leave the Biden enrichment and corruption allegations for another day.

Trump's greatest transgression was his invasion of the insider's club that is Washington DC, that he was the proverbial bull in a china shop. I hope that much smashing ensues.