The best thing about the Trump interregnum has been the way it shines light into the myriad dark, ugly corners of the American upper crust. Most of the richies Trump assembled into a cabinet either inherited their money, like DeVos, or stole it, like Wilbur Ross. (Those who had no money to start with, like Price and Pruitt, immediately started stealing with both hands). These are people for whom failure never has consequences.
As Matt Yglesias points out, that’s Brett Kavanaugh’s story in a nutshell. He was born into a prominent Republican family, was sent to the best schools where he showed no special skills beyond an ability to drink heavily, failed in the Bush administration and yet was nominated to the Supreme Court anyway. As millions of people have noticed, if a 17-year-old black kid did what Kavanaugh did in high school, he might still be doing time.
Among the ugly things we’re learning is that a prominent couple at Yale Law School acted as groomers for Kavanaugh’s would-be clerks, telling them how to dress to impress him. For one thing, this exposes the grossly undemocratic way our 1%-oriented judicial system perpetuates itself. For another, the woman involved is Amy Chua, the nasty little shitbag who acknowledged her psychological child abuse in “Tiger Mom,” pretending that her tough love approach and not the couple’s affluence was what made her children successful. This illustrates that no matter what culture you come from, money usually turns you into an asshole.
The psychiatrist who led the movement to warn the public about Trump’s mental impairments says his mental state is deteriorating, which makes him more dangerous than ever. Great. That’s just what I wanted to hear.
My hope for the Trump presidency and the GOP takeover of government was that it would discredit conservatism for at least a generation. It appears to be working out that way. Polling shows that the GOP tax-cut scam didn’t fool the public. Nothing could be better for this country than having that particular well of ignorance run dry.
Finally, I praise the News Journal when it does something well, so I’m forced to point out that their story this week about the state rehiring a woman who did time for vehicular homicide was a disgusting piece of crime-shaming someone who did her time. Even worse, they tied it to another employee who was rehired after molesting a child, and led not with the molester but with the drunk driver. The story also never noted the other people who have been convicted of crimes involving alcohol and kept their jobs in the AG’s office. This is the result of having almost nobody at Creekwood with any roots in Delaware.