The Potomac Two-Step

I've been writing about "the Islamic Two-Step" for years now. It's a simple little dance: Muslims crying out "peace, peace, we are for peace" occupy our time in bad-faith "negotiations" while alternating their pleas with terror attacks, savageries against non-Muslims, and strident demands for accommodations that no one else has ever requested or would ever be granted. That makes it something of a relief when an Islamic organization such as HAMAS comes right out and says "there will be no peace until we get everything we want," which includes the complete destruction of Israel. At least the pretenses are done with.

Our political elite has been two-stepping quite a great deal, too:

1. The VA Scandals. VA officials' "cooperation" with the investigations into its malfeasances is entirely fake:

Congressional staffers investigating data falsification and whistleblower retaliation at the Department of Veterans Affairs regional office in Philadelphia were given a workspace there that was wired with activated audio microphones and video cameras, the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs said Monday.

Committee investigators also glimpsed a notebook used by the agency's regional director that bore written instructions to ignore their requests for information, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said during a late-night hearing.

Miller, chairman of the veterans committee, said he is “shocked” by the directives from VA officials to ignore congressional investigators.

“You will not ignore this committee anymore,” Miller said to Allison Hickey, VA's under secretary for benefits, who testified at the hearing.

There are a lot of firing offenses buried in there. Some of them are prosecutable as well. But that's what the investigators are facing -- and the miscreants two-stepping before them are confident that nothing will befall them because of it.

2. The IRS Scandals. The IRS continues to lie blatantly to Congress about the documents that would establish its duplicities:

The Federal Election Commission recycled the computer hard drive of April Sands — a former co-worker of Lois Lerner’s — hindering an investigation into Sands’ partisan political activities, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Sands resigned from the Federal Election Commission in April after she admitted to violating the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch employees from engaging in partisan political activities on federal time and at federal facilities.

The twist is that Sands also worked under Lois Lerner when the ex-IRS agent — who is currently embroiled in a scandal over the targeting of conservative political groups — worked at the FEC’s enforcement division.

Here, all the offenses alleged are felonious. As has been noted by others, merely suggesting such use of the IRS to hamper political enemies got Nixon hounded out of office, even though the IRS commissioner of that time wouldn't cooperate. Once again, the IRS functionaries being "investigated" appear confident that their two-step will cost them nothing.

3. The Border Crisis. There can be absolutely no doubt of what's happening on our southern border, yet the Administration and its most prominent supporters continue to scream "There is no crisis, the border is secure," while Obama himself demands nearly $4 billion in extra appropriations to deal with the influx:

We are watching the destruction of the United States....

[Senator Jeff] Sessions reminded Congress of Major Garrett’s article in the National Journal on July 3rd in which he said that Barack Obama plans to legalize 5 to 6 million illegals using executive power.

Obama met June 30th with open borders and other far-left pro-illegal immigration groups: the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); AFL-CIO; Center for American Progress; Leadership Council on Civil Rights; America’s Voice; the National Immigration Law Center; United Farm Workers; Center for Community Change; and others. The National Council of LaRaza didn’t attend, supposedly not invited.

The groups encouraged him to move ahead with the legalization of people currently here illegally.

When Boehner advised the president that there would be no immigration reform this year, Obama said he responded this way: “Sorry about that. I’m going to keep my promise and move forward with executive action soon.”

While there is a crushing invasion on our southern border, Obama said, to quote Garrett, that “he was going to condemn House Republicans for inaction and set the most expansive legal course permissible to beef up border security, slow deportations of noncriminal aliens, and provide legal status to millions of undocumented workers—all by himself.”

This puts me in mind of an old movie: A Guide For The Married Man. Joey Bishop's wife comes home to find him in bed with another woman and launches a fit: "What are you doing in our bed with that girl?" Bishop and the girl calmly get out of bed and get dressed as his wife continues to scream. After the girl has left, Bishop calmly turns to his wife and says "What bed? What girl?"

The Border Patrol has apprehended "illegal immigrants" at the southern border whose home states are Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen.

Yes, Gentle Reader, all of this is actually happening. You haven't dreamed a bit of it.

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It's not that long ago that I cited the critical importance of trust: trust in one another and in our institutions, particularly governments. Trust is a fragile thing:

A thousand truths do not mark a man as a truth-teller, but a single lie marks him as a damned liar....Lying to other people is your business, but I tell you this: once a man gets a reputation as a liar, he might as well be struck dumb, for people do not listen to the wind. [Robert A. Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy]

...so you could quite reasonably conclude that elected officials confronted with repeated bare-faced deceits would automatically cease to believe the statements of the deceivers and would behave accordingly. Yet that hasn't happened. Why?

Because the Republicans are the Democrats' dance partners.

The preservation of certain illusions is crucial to the maintenance of our political status quo. The very definition of an establishment is that group which is embedded in and maintains the status quo in its demesne. In particular, our political Establishment is determined to defend the cherished myth that the federal government can be trusted with a degree of power over private Americans and their businesses many orders of magnitude greater than that the Founding Fathers fought a revolution to overthrow.

They who seek to wield power love power. When out of power, they will struggle to regain it. They will not attack power itself. Neither will they attack the institutions through which they might some day wield it. Thus, they will defend even those institutions of power that are in an adversary's grip. They hope to displace the adversary and take the power he wields into their own hands.

To allow the utter and complete corruption of the federal government of these United States to become plainly visible would evoke a popular revolt that would pull it down and destroy it. Never mind that that's exactly what it deserves. Never mind that that government now "rules by naked force." (Glenn Reynolds) Never mind that it isn't even candid about its premises and its agenda. They who seek to wield its powers will protect it from the just consequences of its worst excesses.

With or without music, the Potomac Two-Step will continue until we take the musket down from the mantel and march.