I spent Memorial Day Weekend as any self-respecting political junkie, condemned to endless hours in airplanes en route to a family wedding, might do: I read Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book about the Biden administration’s disgraceful attempt at a coverup of the president’s deterioration, Original Sin. From time to time, I would check out the weekend’s headlines, many of which had to do with the surpassingly vulgar corruption of the Trump Administration. And I would close my eyes and think, on this sacred weekend of remembrance, about those who sacrificed their lives for a country that squandered their patriotism on the stupid wars that have littered my lifetime…and those other veterans, still alive, people I know, whose brains and bodies were ruptured in the act of serving their country.

And a question, and a certain muted fury—center-seat fury on a long flight to San Diego and another one home—festered: Which was more insulting to the American people?

—The Biden Administration insiders’ belief that they could hide the President’s gathering debility from the public? Or…

—The Trump Administration’s belief that it could engage, without consequence, in the most flagrant public corruption in American history? Or…

—The phenomenal self-pitying lassitude of Americans, the luckiest people in the history of the world, which provided a national couch-fog that enabled the Democrats’ failed attempt at obfuscation…and Trump’s blatant success at buck-raking?

All of these are interlocking embarrassments. I’d have to say Trump’s doomsday corruption is the most immediate problem. As Evan Osnos writes in the New Yorker:

Even seasoned practitioners of Washington pay-to-play have been startled by the new rules for buying influence. In December, a seat at a group dinner at Mar-a-Lago could be had for a million-dollar contribution to maga Inc., a super pac that serves as a war chest for the midterms. More recently, one-on-one conversations with the President have become available for five million. The return on investment is uncertain, a government-affairs executive told me: “What if he’s in a bad mood? You have no clue where the money is eventually going.” Another lobbying veteran described the frank exchange as “outer-borough Mafia shit.”

The New York Times accounts of last week’s bit-coin scam dinner at Trump’s Virginia golf club shaded even Trump’s decadent acceptance of a $400 million airplane from Qatar:

Mr. Trump and his business partners organized the dinner to promote sales of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency, a memecoin launched just days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. A memecoin is a type of digital currency tied to an online joke or mascot; it typically has no function beyond speculation. But Mr. Trump’s coins have become a vehicle for investors, including many foreigners, to funnel money to his family. {emphasis mine]

The president’s business partners called the dinner the world’s “most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION” and posted a leaderboard online that allowed crypto investors to calculate how many $TRUMP coins they would have to buy to earn one of the 220 seats.

As of Wednesday morning, May 28, the Trump bitcoin bribery and sucker fund was worth $2.44 billion dollars.

Is this what Trump voters envisioned when they pulled their precious levers in the voting box? Is this acceptable…to the Trumpian masses who were enraged by the special privileges the Biden Administration dispensed to various “identity” groups? Or Hunter Biden’s pathetic crack-addled pickings? Is TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) tariff chaos what they were expecting when they presumed Trump would bring them easier prosperity? Do they still think Trump is strong when he is consistently rolled by Putin and Xi? Take a look at this “threat” Trump blabbed on Truth Social:

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened in Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” Mr. Trump said in a statement on social media. “He’s playing with fire!”

Be honest: That is not a “threat” that would strain the capabilities of your average fourth-grader, even at a moment when a whopping majority—70 freaking percent— of our fourth-graders are functionally illiterate, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

There is a race taking place…between Trump’s greed and ineptitude, and his brutal need for retribution: Will the United States collapse beneath the weight of his stupidity or his clumsy authoritarianism? And how was it that we allowed this profoundly foolish man to become President?

Well, in 2024, he was running against two of the most pathetic Democrats in the history of the party—I mean, by comparison, George McGovern and Walter Mondale had a clear and coherent vision of where they wanted the country to go (even if it was obvious that the country didn’t want to go there).

I wrote about the phenomenon of Tapper and Thompson’s book last week. Now I’ve read it and am sufficiently appalled by the skullduggery of Biden’s aides and the flaccid response of the Democratic Party’s leadership. (Mea culpa, too: I listened to good friends who said Biden was sharp in private…and, who also insisted: anyway, there was no one else. I promise Sanity Clause readers: I’ll never do that again.)

There was “no one else” because the Democratic Party had lost its way, become captive of interest groups, as Jonathan Chait argues in The Atlantic—interest “groups” that were merely a handful of “activists” who represented a microscopic demographic sliver of the American public. Interest groups that still throw disproportionate weight in the party.

The writhings of the Democrats remain painful and odious. They’re still arguing over obscure politically correct language that is sewage to my ear. And their small clutch of a Sanity caucus continues to howl dismay into a freshening breeze of political banality:

“I don’t think nationally the Democratic brand helps very much anywhere,” [Senator Michael] Bennet told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when asked about the party’s standing. “If it did, we wouldn’t have lost to Donald Trump twice.”

“I’m also furious at the Democratic Party that has lost twice to Trump. Donald Trump could not get appointed to any job in the state of Colorado,” Bennet added.

“He couldn’t get hired on 17th Street, which is our business street here in Denver, Colorado. But he’s been sent to Washington twice to blow the place up.”

Another Sane Democrat, Elissa Slotkin, can’t really tell the truth in today’s New York Times:

But in general, we have a problem in this country in that it’s getting harder to get in and then stay in the middle class. And if you’re not speaking to that issue, you’re just having half a conversation. You’re not really addressing people’s primary question, which is: What am I going to do? What are my kids going to do? What are my grandkids going to do in this economy when the old way of life is changing? That’s No. 1, that’s the substance, and we owe the country that answer.

To which I call bullshit: This economic fantasy is at the core of the Democratic Party’s delusions. The fact is, there are plenty of good jobs out there—right now!—begging for middle class aspirants. There are plenty of skilled jobs—some paying $100,000 per year—in. crafts like welding, clectronics, construction, even auto repair (if you can operate a computer) that need to be filled. To say nothing of the vast numbers of jobs in the service industries that can be first steps in a career ladder for those who aren’t bored, bitter and lazy.

These are the battalions of bullshit that Democrats (and the incredulous Trumpicenes) deploy: Manufacturing jobs will save the middle class. Tariffs will bring back manufacturing jobs. Teachers need to be paid more…a qualified yes, but they’re already paid more than teachers in much better systems like Finland and South Korea. And on, and on…Fantasies all. I mean, all you have to do is go to a state college graduation and see the thousands of children of recent immigrants who are walking the walk and stepping up to the dream.

Basic truth: you want to succeed, be ambitious. Learn a skill. Work your tail off. Teach your fourth-graders how to read.

I don’t know how far a smart and honorable politician—say Elissa Slotkin—can get today if she were to say: I will be there to lead with vigor and purpose if our country is threatened—and to allay those threats with strength and power—but we politicians can affect your lives only at the margins. Politics can’t get you better jobs. The jobs are already out there. You may need to make an effort, take a few rudimentary tech courses, get a junior college degree; you may have to move from the rustier states to the sunnier ones. But if you want to be middle class, you have to do these three things: graduate high school, learn how to work successfully—that is, show up on time, respect the boss and pay attention to the details—and not have any children unless you’re married. If you do those three, according to 25 years of sociology, there is a more than 90% chance you’ll wind up in the middle class.

These are things most politicians—Democrat or Republican—never say. Even Elissa Slotkin, whom I admire, can’t go there. The squalid hate-populism of the right succeeds by misdirection: You’re not better off, the folks are told, because all these other people (blacks, Latinos, illegal immigrants, feminists, trans-activists) get preferential treatment for good jobs instead of you. The problem for Democrats is, there’s some truth to that. We’ve had 60 years of preferential treatment—some of which was justified, much of which was reflexive. But J.D. Vance told the truth in Hillbilly Elegy years before he became the prolific liar he is today: race and identity preferences have little to do with the laziness, drugginess, lack of ambition and complaisant morality that has infected our country. Appalachia is metastasizing from a lack of rigor. Academia is collapsing from a lack of intellectl courage. A mortal laziness propels the conspiracy theorists who have gained insane credibility. A gilded, reality-TV greed buoys a nation of lottery-ticket buyers. We have chickened out on ambition.

And so this morning, liberated from middle-seat air travel, I am back to Sanity Central, flexing my elbows: Both Biden’s aides and Donald Trump’s greedigarchy can exploit the American people…

Because the American people are exploitable.

They are suckers for the grievance-industrial complex. They aren’t hungry to learn new skills. They aren’t hungry for personal betterment. They aren’t hungry. Period. Even those who consider themselves struggling still own iPhones, flat-screen TVs, and absolutely unnecessary monster pickups.

Where is the politician who will tell this truth?

Well, here’s one courageous guy…

Wes Moore, the black governor of Maryland, vetoed a bill that would have created a commission to study reparations for the descendants of slaves. I’ve known Moore for 15 years and he is just too honest, and responsible, to delude his constituents that there are any plausible chance for reparations, or that they would make any real difference. How to repair the enduring damage done by slavery? Work hard. Stay in school. Serve others. “Service will save us,” Governor Moore has said. He served as an U.S. Army Captain in Afghanistan; he says the military saved his life. His service has certainly inspired mine.

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