Normalizing the expectations

One thing we can say for Trump is that he's doing a fantastic job of pulling the band aid off of Idiot America's understanding of the way its ruling institutions actually work.

Senior White House and Justice Department officials had been working on building a case against Mr. Comey since at least last week, according to administration officials. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been charged with coming up with reasons to fire him, the officials said.

All the decent folk are shocked shocked. But this is how things always work.  For whatever reason, most people are a-ok with day to day corruption and abuse of power so long as the practitioners are subtle in their manners. 

Ten years ago, New Orleans' first Inspector General introduced himself with the curious remark that the corruption here just wasn't "sophisticated" enough.

“Corruption in other cities is so sophisticated (because of their rules) you wouldn’t find briberies. It’s very unusual you’d find someone passing money in an office somewhere.”

The New New Orleans does much better corruption now. But don't think for a minute that that means less corruption. It's just that as long the graft isn't so stupidly blatant that it embarrasses the comfortable classes, then nobody has to worry their pretty little head about it.

Well the country went and elected Ray Nagin President last year. And now we're having a daily panic over the very basic fact that America has not actually, "Always Been Great."  The danger here isn't so much that we "normalize" the uncouth behavior of the Ogre President. It's more that our capacity for collective self-delusion once again outstrips the opportunity he presents for honest discussion of how fucked up things really are and have been.