I like Megan McArdle, the conservatarian political columnist for The Washington Post. I really do. I think she’s smart and talented and interesting. Best of all, she’s not someone who is bound by ideology or political allegiances. Ideology and allegiance are good in some cases and in some occupations, but not in hers and not at her paper. McCardle is as close to a “truth teller” as exists in the mainstream media today, and I appreciate that.
All of that said, McArdle’s column this week leaves me nearly despondent, mostly because it’s hopelessly naïve and, as a result, exposes the ridiculousness of the current American predicament. McArdle starts her piece by expressing sympathy for former President Joe Biden with his recent cancer diagnosis, but then jumps right in, openly and aggressively criticizing those who hid Biden’s mental incapacity from the nation for the better part of four years. So far, so good. Biden deserves our sympathy, while his enablers deserve our detestation. Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there, as McArdle uses her platform to call for Democrats and even her colleagues in the media to reflect on their treachery and determine how best to fix things going forward:
I’m convinced that deep institutional soul-searching is due in many quarters and that this conversation is too important to delay, even at the risk of adding to the Biden family’s distress.
It is impossible to read “Original Sin” … without reaching a horrifying conclusion: The most powerful nation in the world and its nuclear arsenal were left in the hands of a man who could not reliably recognize people he’d known for years, maintain his train of thought, or speak in coherent sentences.
That’s great. I agree that these are reasonable conclusions, but I still have some questions.
How is it that some of us reached those same conclusions in 2020? How did some of us already know this would happen before he won the White House? Why do some people—Democrats and the mainstream media—pretend that they need this book to explain to them now what many of us knew all along? More to the point, does anyone actually believe that the people who need to do soul searching will actually do it? Or, if they do, that they will come to the conclusion that they screwed up and put the nation in great jeopardy?
Here are some predictions, although not particularly bold ones: No one, save maybe Megan McArdle, will do any soul-searching. No one will resolve to do anything differently in the future. No one in the media will suffer any negative career repercussions for hiding Biden’s decline and openly lying to the American people. Indeed, some—like the execrable Jake Tapper—will get rich off it. Most notably, no one in the Democratic Party or Joe Biden’s inner circle will suffer any sort of legal, financial, or professional consequences for their overt and inarguable criminality. If anything, they’ll be lauded by their fellow partisans as heroes and saviors, brave men and women who did what had to be done to save “our democracy” ™ from the bad people. In short, nothing good will come of any of this.
Interestingly, the very thing that makes McArdle such an otherwise enjoyable and interesting political writer is what blinds her to the realities of the Biden cover-up and the media’s complicity. As I said, she’s not “bound by ideology or political allegiances.” That makes for intriguing and honest journalism, but it also blinds her to political reality: American politics is no longer about doing what is best for the country or for “the common good” or even what is advantageous for a small set of constituents. American politics is about power, raw power, and crushing “the other side.” It is about “winning” and “defeating” the enemy—whether he’s your neighbor, a coworker, or a (former) friend who has the audacity to think or vote differently from you. No one has time for soul searching, righting past wrongs, or punishing bad behavior. They have fights to win, and all of that is merely distracting.
For years now, I’ve warned about the “politicization of everything” and the degeneration of American republicanism into “total war” in the “total state.” As a forewarning, I’ve borrowed (heavily) from the Weimar/Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, who not only predicted the collapse of post-war Germany into totalitarianism because of its obsessions with politics but also justified the monstrosity that followed as the only possible end to the total war and the only way to rehabilitate the total state. I’ve insisted, in no uncertain terms, that the division of this nation into teams—into “friend” and “enemy” groupings—would ultimately be its downfall and would leave “the last great hope of mankind” crippled and broken.
Well, guess what?
Ironically, those who claim that they were protecting Biden or were “saving the nation” from Trump have actually empowered Trump, making him almost entirely immune to criticism, especially from outside of the party. Hiding Biden’s infirmities and lying to the country about them for most, if not all, of his presidency inarguably constitutes the most serious, most dangerous, and most prolonged scandal in all of American political history. And everyone involved will walk away scot-free, life, liberty, and reputation intact. That, in turn, means that there is exactly zero chance that Trump’s supporters—or most any Republicans, for that matter—will allow their guy (the leader of their “team”) to be punished, diminished, or even criticized for lesser violations of the public trust. And to be fair, why would they? Why should they? Why should they stand for any attack on their guy after watching what the Democrats and the mainstream did for Biden and got away with?
As for Democrats, they already feel that their “team” is getting the shaft, that Trump is worse than an incapacitated Biden ever could be, and that they can and should do whatever it takes to stop the president, irrespective of the consequences. They already feel the need to fight back against this new narrative, to protect their side, to save their friends, and to punish their enemies. Hilariously, the comments section at the end of Megan McArdle’s column on Biden’s infirmities and the need for “soul searching” is prefaced by the following AI-generated summary: “The comments overwhelmingly criticize the focus on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, arguing that the media should instead scrutinize the current President, Donald Trump, for his perceived mental instability and dangerous behavior.” Because, of course, they do. Team über alles!
We know how total war in the total state turned out in Germany. We know that the disorder caused by the Weimar politicization of everything ended with the German people—including Carl Schmitt himself—trading their “sovereign democracy” for a “sovereign dictator” and perpetrating the most horrific crimes against millions of the most vulnerable people in society.
The end of the total war is not likely to play out the same way in present-day America, but it will nevertheless be ugly and destructive. As both sides dig in their heels and refuse to concede even an inch to their enemies, the institutions that enable the republic are, one by one, stripped of all legitimacy. Already, the mainstream media has sacrificed its legitimacy for power. Congress, too, seems to have collapsed beyond the point of reclamation. The Biden disaster has likely destroyed the remaining vestiges of presidential legitimacy, while the courts today spend their time trying desperately to destroy what is left of theirs.
No one will be punished. No one will suffer any consequences. And no one will do any soul-searching—now or ever. Everything is legitimate. Everything is justified. Nothing is beyond the pale. They did what they had to do to keep Biden in office. Period. And roughly half the country thinks that’s great.
