One of the many oddities of this age is the way in which the political class talks about itself, something they do incessantly. For example, the Senate just passed a giant foreign aid bill to give your money to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the military industrial complex. This is a more bloated version of the “bipartisan” deal that included a few pennies for the border patrol and enshrined open borders. This time they stripped out the border money and expanded the foreign aid.

Now, normal people could be forgiven for wondering if the senators have had some sort of collective mental breakdown. The reason the “bipartisan” deal on immigration failed was not that it was too tough on immigration, but that it did nothing to address the issues causing the flood of migrants. In fact, it promised to make the situation worse by limiting what could be done by future presidents. In other words, the answer was to fix the border provision by making it much tougher.

Again, this is the way a normal person thinks. The Senate drew an entirely different conclusion from the storm of protest. They concluded that what the people really wanted was more of the same on the border and even more of their money going to foreign actors and the war machine. Imagine someone makes you an offer on your car and you say the offer is too low. They come back with an even lower offer. That is what we are getting with the Senate at the moment.

Putting that aside for second, look at how the senators supporting this ridiculous bill are talking about it. They are not talking about the bill at all. Instead, they are talking about their heroism in passing the bill. Mitch McConnell went to the floor to say that history would remember his historic vote in favor of the bill. Chuck Schumer talked about himself as if he was Leonidas. By getting this massive giveaway passed in the Senate he was saving the free world from disaster.

The same sort of thing happened in the first round. What little they said about the immigration portion of the bill was easily disputed by looking at the text of the bill they foolishly released to the public. Most of time was spent talking about their personal heroism in crafting the bill. Schumer did the media rounds tell the various stooges about how he labored like Hercules to overcome one obstacle after another in order to get this bill to the Senate for a vote.

There is nothing normal about how these people talk. Politicians in all times exaggerate their roles in things when times are good. They also exaggerate the role of opponents when times are bad. We expect politicians to do this. What is novel today is how they celebrate themselves like heroes for failing to do basic things. Every Washington pol is now his own hagiographer. At this rate, Schumer will be crafting a bill to have his face added to Mount Rushmore.

One possible reason for doing this is the same reason a failing company ramps up its marketing with promises of the product being new and improved. The theory is if you say it enough times people will believe it. The Senate is a clown show so they are heaping praise on themselves thinking that maybe people will not notice that these guys arrive at work in a Volkswagen Beatle done up as a giant mouse. The consultants are telling the senators they need to build their brand.

On the other hand, it is possible they believe it. These are the same people who thought people yelling at them about the terrible immigration bill were angry that it could possibly slow the flood of migrants. They were the same guys who thought using Senator Howdy Doody as the point man in immigration was brilliant. When you are making these errors, anything is possible, so it is quite probable that these senators view themselves as world historical figures.

Another possibility is that these senators are so insulated from our reality that they are now operating in the realm of fantasy. When was the last time Chuck Schumer talked to anyone who lived among the Dirt People? All of his social interactions are with the Israel lobby and Wall Street. The overlap here is immense. They certainly do think Schumer is a hero to his people, just not our people. You can go through the roster of long-serving politicians and see a similar degree of insularity.

Listening to these feeble old men sing their own praises, one cannot help but think of the Politburo in the waning days of the Soviet Union. Like Washington, Soviet politics had come to be controlled by a class of geezers. Their primary concern for a long time had been keeping their spot. The result was they surrounded themselves with sycophants good only for praising their bosses. The result was the political system was incapable of responding to the brewing crisis.

This is what we see with immigration. The solution is not complicated and most of the tools are available to bring the crisis under control. The old bulls in Washington, however, are primarily concerned with Speaker Johnson, who has come to represent a generational threat to them. The media stooges have acknowledged as much, saying that the Senate is hoping to box Johnson in with this bill. In other words, it is geezers thinking they need to fend off the youngster.

This would explain the self-praise. The geriatric ruling class fears the next generation more than they fear death. They have plenty of younger flunkies around to help guard their position and tell them they are the best. The old party hands have now reached that point many old men in the business world reach and that is to claim their experience trumps the talent and vigor of their young challenger. The result is Mitch McConnel now thinks he is Cicero.

The comparison to the Soviet Union brings with it a warning. Decades of insularity did not just result in an ossified ruling class. It also retarded the development of a succeeding generation of party men. When the icy hand of death started to thin the leadership ranks, what replaced them were men good at currying favor but not good at anything else, so the result was disaster. If Speaker Johnson is our Gorbachev, the next decade promises to be quite grim.

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