The Moral Dimension of Politics

          There is no debating the point: the Democrats are not having fun these days.  In just one week they had an embarrassing fiasco in Iowa, President Trump’s impeachment acquittal, and a blowback against Speaker Pelosi for her disgraceful insult of the president after his State of the Union address.

            The Iowa caucus exposed the incompetence of the Democratic Party, while focusing the nation’s attention on its effort to destroy Bernie Sanders, just as it did when he ran against Hillary four years ago. The Party, facing utter disaster in November with Bernie at the head of the ticket, is desperate. It even changed the rules so that Michael Bloomberg can participate in the next debate, standing on a box to do so.

            Mitch McConnell was right when he said that President Trump’s impeachment was an insult to the intelligence of the American people. The House prosecutors failed abjectly to prove their case. If they succeeded at anything, it was in putting television viewers to sleep. But look to Hollywood to award an Oscar to Adam Schiff for a lifetime achievement in raising the art form of prevarication to an entirely new level.

            And then Nancy tore up the speech. Maybe she was trying to energize the party’s base; the somnolent bunch surely needed a boost after sitting on their hands for an hour and a half. But I think it was more than that: she was demonstrating her anger and disgust at a president she hates. “A spontaneous expression of anger,” said CNN. “A small act of civil disobedience,” said another media apologist. That’s all it was.

            Nancy, for her part, said it was simply the courteous thing to do—and that after she had disrespectfully broken with tradition in the way she introduced the president to the assembled Congress. In truth, she hates the president. She hates him for winning—in 2016, in the exoneration of the Mueller Report, in the booming economy, in the impeachment acquittal, in refusing to shake her hand. And she hates him for lying. For one raised as good Catholic, lying is a moral failing. That’s why she says she prays for the president.

            The left goes one further on moral grounds: it calls the president evil. John Legend, Omarosa, Abby Huntsman, even U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu head a long list of accusers stretching from Hollywood to Washington.

            Is it any surprise then that our counter-punching president fights back? Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are horrible persons. They are evil and corrupt. Judge Kavanaugh’s critics were evil, too. And a mocking jab at Speaker Pelosi: “I don’t like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when you know that is not so.” He said this at a prayer breakfast last week with Pelosi sitting at the head table, grimacing and shaking her head. Probably because he didn’t bring a printed copy of his remarks for her to tear up.