American Impatience And Signs Of The Times

An old Republican long put out to pasture tells me, with an impish smile creasing his face, “What a difference a House makes, eh?”

He adds, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has, like himself, been put out to pasture. He supposes Pelosi may now be dancing her last political dance. Her compatriot in partisan politics, California U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, 90 years old last June, announced her retirement from office in February, according to the Associated Press. Feinstein may be replaced, Democrats suppose, by Adam Schiff, who has, my retired Republican says with a barely concealed snarl, never met a brotherly lie he has not warmly embraced.

The he notes, beneficently, “Well, politics is not bean-bag, you know.”

After former President Donald Trump’s Huey-Long-like one term in office, countless political rallies during which the upstart Republican castigated thin-skinned reporters as shameless “fakes,” two failed impeachment proceedings – “failed” because the sole purpose of impeachment is removal from office after a trial in the U.S. Senate on an indictment brought in the U.S. House – twitter bans, a GOP  stuck in a Trump groove, and the failed and failing administration of current President Joe Biden, caught in the muck of his son Hunter’s misdoings, the American public appears to be growing restive, not a good sign for the party in power.

According to multiple polls, Democrats are losing the affections of the American public on several important fronts. African American support, robust during the administration of President Barack Obama, is on the downslide, some suppose, because “Bidenomic inflation” has had a disastrous multiplier effect on lower income groups. Latin Americans, excessively Catholic, certainly did not appreciate being singled out for rough theological treatment from the administration of the nation’s second Catholic -- sort of -- president. Soccer Moms have turned against pedagogical “experts” who, along with teacher union chiefs, appear to support what an enlivened Board of Education resistance regards as the unethical indoctrination of their young children.

And on and on and on … The southern border is still leaking illegal border jumpers who wish to settle in New York City. Martha’s Vineyard quickly got rid of them, but New York Mayor Eric Adams is shivering with indignation as his hotels fill up with illegals.

Some Democrat “experts” are wondering whether the legal pursuit of Trump, the Democrats’ White Whale, will create legal precedents – Does anyone remember stare decisis? -- that, rigorously enforced, will in the future see their favorite bean-bagger candidates behind bars. Others have grudgingly acknowledged that the use of the judicial department to accomplish political ends cannot help but politicize justice itself.

If one poses to Democrats former President Ronald Reagan’s searing question -- “Are you better off now [well into the Biden administration] than you were four years ago?” -- the answer to the question lies buried in the disappointing poll numbers, and our inflated currency, and the price of gas, and the price of eggs, and the price of electricity and other consumables.

It has taken quite a while, but the voting public appears to have “come of age” – which means what?

It means, putting aside Trump’s irresistible urge to defend himself against what he regards as unjust accusations, the general public has removed its blindfolds and seems now ready to accept as a general proposition that the legacy media has placed itself securely behind the usual left of center ideological barricades.

This is why, as a public institution, the same media that determines political perceptions is now underwater blowing bubbles. A February Gallup poll tells us, “Only 26% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the news media, the lowest level Gallup and Knight have recorded in the past five years, while 53% hold an unfavorable view” – not good. An August FiveThirtyEight poll shows Biden with a disapproval rating of 55 percent – not good.

A report in the New York Times, DOJ escalates Hunter Biden inquiry, provides a hopeful example showing at least one judge shucking off an attempt by the executive department to politicize the judicial department.

Buried deep inside the Times story is this lightning bolt illumination: “Late last month, a federal judge in Wilmington, Delaware put the plea deal [arranged by prosecutors and defense attorneys for the wayward Hunter Biden] on hold,” until both parties could adequately address her concerns. Her chief concern was that the deal, very favorable to Hunter, could only go forward if she were willing to play a role best assumed by someone who was not a court justice. Her unanswerable misgiving exploded the deal.

Following the explosion, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “Elevated the federal prosecutor investigating President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, [U.S. Attorney David Weiss] to the status of special council,” now free, supposedly, to prosecute Hunter across different judicial districts. Weiss has been diddling with the Hunter Biden investigation for 5 long years, since 2018, and Republicans are rightly worried that the statute of limitations on the Weiss’ prosecutions, if any, may run out before Hunter is safely tucked inside a jail cell – alongside, Democrats hope, Trump, whose favorability ratings in recent polls are better than those of Biden or the legacy media.