Victor Davis Hanson-Respect Unearned - American Greatness

Respect Unearned - American Greatness:
"Washington’s self-righteous establishmentarians talk of professionalism when they act unprofessionally.
They refer at length to their intellectual and professional pedigrees when they prove incompetent. 
And they cite their morality and ethics when they possess neither.
And then, adding insult to injury, when the public expresses abhorrence at their behavior, they accuse critics of unprofessionalism, a lack of patriotism, or reckless demagoguery.
...But what in their past has earned them the moral high ground?
...Trust in the Obama-era directorships of the Justice Department, FBI, and, indeed, the federal courts themselves are now horses that have long ago left the proverbial judicial barn. 
...The public is sorry, but once bitten, twice shy. 
The Humpty Dumpty federal FISA court process and the FBI credibility shattered in 2016 will not so easily be reconfigured.
...This growing loss of confidence in a compromised justice and investigatory elite is a symptom of a larger failure of our so-called best and brightest, whether in the media, government or the university. 
We need to return to an older American idea that where we went to school, who wrote us recommendations, what titles we self-reference, and which grandees we know, mean little in comparison to what we actually do each day.
Self-righteousness and self-referencing become fatal when combined with incompetence and malfeasance. 
James Comey is our touchstone to a morally confused age."
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