Essays in Idleness

Up here in the High Doganate, we have long been inclined to delegate the study and analysis of Congressional documents touching on Merican spy agencies to our Chief Texas Correspondent. He is a shrewd lawyer and close observer of the Natted States political process (though a little weak on Catholic theology). From his reports I am now convinced that some dirty pool has been played, and is beginning to be exposed — notwithstanding the usual partisan gibber from all sides, and the fact that nothing has yet risen to the evidentiary standard of surprising me.

By other methods — facial gestures, vocal tone, overall smugness and content of tweets — I had already concluded that the former FBI director, Mr Comey, is a Bad Guy. In the last USA election, I couldn’t tell what game he was playing, but could tell he was playing a game. That we heard from him at all, was suspicious.

Partisanship conceals more than the obvious. At the lowest intellectual level, it is plain enough why the progressive media, normally shrieking for “transparency,” are now outraged by the declassification of departmental secrets; or why those who want police and intelligence agencies kept on a very short leash, now demand they be allowed free-range. As my CTC likes to remind, “If they didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all.”

To be fair to them, however, few in the media can remember what happened more than five minutes ago, and this tends to make conscious hypocrisy impossible for them. We can hardly expect them to remember, say, the extra-legal eccentricities of J. Edgar Hoover; nor their own methods, both legal and not, when inquiring into Watergate, or the Pentagon Papers. It all makes sense, however, once we discern their consistent purpose, which is, lynching Republicans. Something that now focuses cold and penetrating light into the interior of the Obama administration, makes them instead glowering old maids of rule adherence.

The inability to see beyond one’s own partisan position is the easier to understand in a world that has been so intensely politicized. It appears, to the partisans of the moment, that everything is at stake: “No price too high!”

But that, I think, is the clue to what has happened beneath the intense partisanship: a terrible loss of Christian faith. Particularly: faith in providence.

One must do, consistently, not what is convenient to one’s party, but what is right. If there is conflict, then, it is the party that needs adjusting, and not the moral law. For as Lord Marmion of Fontenaye discovered: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!”

Having done what is right, trust things will work out – remembering that your own destruction may be part of God’s plan. He, however, will take care of things, in the long view; the final result is not up to you. Even the ultimate consequences of your own actions, are not in your hands. Prudence can compass only what is humanly foreseeable.

This, or rather the ignorance of this, is what I dislike about Comey (and the rest of them). It explains why he made such a hash, during the last election campaign, with his theatrical announcements of FBI investigations, called on and off. It explains why both Hillary and Donald detested him.

It was not partisanship, that provoked his actions. I’m sure he thought himself above that. Rather, he felt the need to decide, “Who should win in America’s best interest?” I do not doubt he is sincere, in believing himself a patriot.

Vanity always thinks it knows best.

And it thinks the end justifies the means.

Verily, the Twisted Nanny State is built on this premiss: “In God we don’t trust.”