Reclaiming My Time
I watched as much of this hearing as I could stand, as a way of mortifying the flesh. My stoic indifference to pain was insufficient: my will broke. I could not watch the whole hearing to the end.
His comment: “This is a hearing; I thought I was the one who was supposed to be heard.”
My comment: This small clip is not the worst of it.
The Democrat congressmen were less polite than howler monkeys. Each would puke invective and slander onto Mr. Barr in the form of a “have you stopped beating your wife YES OR NO!” question, and then, when he attempted to answer, would interrupt him to prevent him from speaking by reclaiming his speaking time.
In at least one case, he answered with a yes and the congress vermin replied “I will take that as a ‘no'” and preventing him from speaking. She then launched into a prepared speech to give had that answer been no — complaining about his department failing to do something he had just said it was doing — utterly oblivious, or so it seemed, to the testimony.
Apparently Robert’s Rule of Order do not not apply here. This was a disgusting and lawless display of Twittermobbing in Real Life.
I am sorry I mocked the monarchists who, from time to time, one encounters on the fringes of political theory. None is a more fervid advocate of liberty and equality than I, but there is a price to pay for these things, and they welcome temptations other systems, inferior in all other ways, resist.
European kingship has many vices, but not among them are the vices particular to democracy the demagogic pandering, the playing to the mob, the selling one’s soul for votes — such as we see here, on grotesque display.
Yes, kings can be tyrants, and, yes, can go mad or be as corrupt as hell itself, but at least, on the whole, they are reserved and dignified about it. Democracy is not an atmosphere where the noble airs of being a gentleman can prosper.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
