Victor Davis Hanson // National Review
Are there any guiding principles that can make sense of the sensational news that now overwhelms the senses seemingly every hour?
What is common to blaring headlines about the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings, an anti-Trump “resistance” buried deep in the permanent bureaucracy, and the improper behavior by top officials of the Obama administration, FBI, and Department of Justice?
There are a few subtexts to all these spectacles, scandals, and melodramas.
First, those in power had never imagined that Donald Trump either could or should win the 2016 election.
That reality emboldened federal employees to take risks and step over the line in efforts to ensure that Trump would be humiliated at the polls. Officials assumed that incoming President Hillary Clinton would either overlook or reward their zealotry.
FBI kingpins such as James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok either broke the law or made a mockery of the FBI’s ethical guidelines. They acted as if Clinton would win, or should have won, the election.
