I’m reading a biography of Lafayette by Harlow Unger and this comment from Gouverneur Morris to George Washington regarding the elites in France on the eve of the French Revolution reminded me of much of the ruling class in D.C. these days…

An hundred Anecdotes and an hundred thousand Examples are required to shew the extreme Rottenness of every Member… There is one fatal principle which pervades all Ranks. It is a perfect Indifference to the Violation of Engagements. Inconsistency is so mingled in the Blood, Marrow and every Essence of this People that when a Man of High Rank and Importance laughs today at what he seriously asserted Yesterday, it is considered as the natural Order of Things.