If you search the motivations and impulses of most politicians on any side of an aisle, you’ll find what they believe is based more on their background, or a perceived trauma, than on any ideology.
Richard Nixon developed his hate of the Eastern elite at Duke Law, where he was snubbed by others for his poor roots. Jack Kennedy developed most of his personality from his bootlegging father. Ronald Reagan got into acting at school to overcome his shyness. That led to politics. The list goes on and on.
As a political consultant for over twenty years, working at times for both parties, I rarely encountered a candidate who was out to change the world, or their district, one way or another. They were usually 50ish bored successful professionals who wanted another mountain to climb or bureaucrats who felt they had spent due time in the chorus and now wanted center stage. They all wanted more power, more perks, and, most important, more ego boost.
Biden is so out of it, and he has slid through power easily, he likely doesn’t have the pathological urge to power that others do. But Lady MacBiden does and Chief of Staff Ron Klain, a serious left wing ideologue, does. Both came to the left as most do, a tremendous sense of entitlement coupled with a demented will to power.
A recent and extreme example of the personal aspect is the left wing weaponization of the Justice Department by AG Merrick Garland. The same Garland was denied his much sought after seat on the Supreme Court by the legislative maneuvering of Mitch McConnell.
It’s not that Garland wasn’t left wing already. If he wasn’t Obama would have never nominated him to the high court. But this slight by McConnell gnawed at Garland and the left knew it.
A guy like Garland lives and breathes for power and prestige. Most of DC does. To rip it away from him when he thought it was so close burned a whole in his psyche that still blazes. Thus, he was the obvious choice for Biden Attorney General.
With him at the helm you wouldn’t have to worry about pulling a Nixonian Saturday Night Massacre because there isn’t an Elliot Richardson or Bill Ruckelshaus in the Biden DOJ. There is only Merrick Garland, who is straining at the leash to get Republicans, any Republican, to temporarily slake his unquenchable thirst for revenge.
So of course he green lit the Trump raid. He’ll also approve an indictment of Trump and do anything, say anything, commit any legal travesty to stop Trump. That’s how worried he is, the left is, of the restoration of Trump, a man with the same overwhelming need for revenge that the left has. But, with knobs on. Between them both it is as personal as a stiletto fight in a dark alley. Only one will emerge standing, both will be bloodied.
Join the Discussion
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.
Another sterling Kamioner column. It is a prescient view of politics that shows just how “close” and how “personal” but also how “juvenile” the behavior is behind human governance. The sandbox really does exist throughout life. And what was experienced in the beginning will define the end. On the political front, it appears that the Democrats understand that any time in that sandbox is limited, and thus they attack the U.S. with their desperate hatred in wild abandon. In the end, we all find out that we, humans, have no power; just imagination.