The Shell Game Part 2

     Friends of mine – yes, I have a couple – have returned to a hopeless task: persuading me to re-engage with electoral politics, possibly (ulp) even as a candidate for office. They been saying some of the most incredible things:

     “If you want to change the system, you have be part of it.”
     “What point is there in complaining if you refuse to get involved?”
     “The only way to shake up the status quo is to force your way in!”

     And their “haymaker:”

     “If people like you would just vote Republican, we could fix all this!”

     The entreaties usually die down when I work the pump on my 12-gauge.

     There’s a method to the madness, Gentle Reader. Pretty soon the country will get the clearest possible demonstration. It will come from the committee investigating the Biden Crime Family.

     Some of those aforementioned friends have pointed to those investigations as “proof” that “things can be turned around.” With enough evidence, they say, we could get prosecutions of the lower levels of the clan, an impeachment and conviction of the Pretender-in-Chief, and bring the whole edifice crashing to earth. To which I reply, “Call me back when it happens.”

     I’ve never denied that “things can be turned around.” It’s my contention that the existing political edifice – i.e., the two major parties, their media allies, and the gaggle of big donors and special interests who keep them fueled – exists solely to perpetuate the status quo. They have no interest in “turning things around.” Nor would they countenance another Trump-like upstart who would sincerely attempt it.

     The Establishment’s hold on power arises from the huge number of people who cajole it, cater to it, plead with it…and vote for it. Alternations of control between Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber are perfectly acceptable, for neither side permits any non-cosmetic changes to existing arrangements. They who manage the two major parties ensure it when they qualify potential candidates. As long as the media kowtows to them and enough votes pour in every two years, the show can go on.

     Back to those Biden-clan investigations: The evidence is now sufficient for any observer not blinded by partisanry to conclude that the lot of them are massively corrupt. Indeed, sufficient evidence has been available for quite some time. The GOP-controlled investigating committee is now exploiting “recent discoveries” to trumpet triumph-to-come. The logical conclusion, were anyone involved in the investigations sincerely interested in justice, would be a deluge of indictments and trials of the non-officeholders and the impeachment of the “Big Guy.” Does anyone expect that to happen?

     I don’t. The fix is in. The Garland-headed Justice Department will withhold one or two “critical documents.” The investigators will say, with many crocodile tears, that without those documents “the case falls short of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” and will refrain from definite action. The investigations will lapse. The criminals will walk; Joe Biden will finish his term of office; and the charades will go on undisturbed.

     But were the identities of the parties reversed, the outcome would be the same. And indeed, we may see that yet. The Republicans aren’t playing this for justice, but for votes. “It’s our turn,” they tell one another. “Now we just have to keep that rascal Trump off the ticket.”

     They’ll manage. They have just as much control over their nominating process as do the Democrats. They failed to exercise it in 2016, mistakenly thinking that Trump wouldn’t secure enough support from the states he needed to clinch it. They won’t make that mistake again.

     Get off the Mishnory Road. Politics is not the answer; it’s the problem. A power-seeker is a power-seeker, interchangeable in substance with any other of his breed. Hearken to the great Thomas Stearns Eliot:

     Don’t soil yourself with political involvement.
     Don’t differentiate between thieves.
     Put not your trust in princes.
     Preach Christ.