Back in 2012, MSNBC Chris Hayes published a book titled The Twilight of the Elites.

The book was very influential in my thinking. The central thesis of it is that the American meritocratic system, which ostensibly rewards talent and hard work, has devolved into a system that perpetuates inequality and privilege. Hayes argues that the elite institutions designed to identify and promote the most capable individuals have instead become self-reinforcing mechanisms for consolidating power and wealth among a small group of insiders.

This erosion of true meritocracy, he contends, has led to widespread institutional failures and a deepening distrust of elites among the general public. Hayes critiques how systemic corruption, cronyism, and the insulation of the elite class have contributed to crises in politics, finance, education, and other sectors. He advocates for rebuilding trust and reforming institutions to create a more equitable and genuinely merit-based society. The book is both a critique of modern meritocracy and an exploration of its consequences for democracy and social cohesion.

It’s also the inspiration for the title of my post today. I strongly believe that a factor in the mess that we are facing today is that our institutionalists refused to see what was happening right in front of them. The sad irony of it all is those same people have helped the near downfall of their beloved institutions.

The fundamentalist institutionalists (say that three times fast) kept refusing to understand the world they were in. They say things like “The America I know would never do that” or “That isn’t who we are, that’s not America” in ways that make them seem completely out of touch. Sometimes they seem to believe that The West Wing is real, that Sorkin Republicans that can be reasoned with still exist in great numbers and a Martin Sheen speech set to stirring music right before the credits roll can change everything.

That is most certainly not the world we are in, and I sometimes wonder if the slow reaction to Trump over the years, and the steadfast belief that The Glorious Glory of the Glorious American System would protect us from the worst of Trump. Their goalpost moved, from laughing at anyone who dared suggest he could be the GOP nominee in 2016 to the idea that “The America I know would never elect Trump” to Mueller will save us to Merrick Garland is very shrewd and is most certainly not moving slow to how foolish all of us were to ever think the system could protect us. In institutionalist punditry, the reaction to pointing out that this was all pretty much a poor read of the situation is often met with snarling and sneering and not much in the way of evidence, as if their “how dare you question me I went to an Ivy League school” anger has the ability to change reality. Magical thinking by the so-called Most Serious and Reasoned Minds of the Discourse.

As much as it pains me to say it because I really do love the guy, Charlie Pierce was right from the get-go about Barack Obama. As an institutionalist, his rhetoric in the 2008 election sometimes rang hollow in comparison to his actions. As an institutionalist, he was obsessed with consensus, an obsession that never leads to the best solution, but the 6th or 7th best. But I guess at least you can label it non-partisan. Then Turtle Senator Mitch McConnell took a big Kentucky dump on one of the institutionalist’s other favorite things, mores and gentleman’s agreements, by refusing to give Garland a SCOTUS nomination hearing. Never forget, the Turtle never actually broke any real rules, just unwritten ones.

Not to pick on Obama too much, because he really was a great president, but he also refused to hold anything like hearings in the aftermath of the Great Recession, declaring it time to Move On. This is another one of the institutionalist’s favorite things, declaring it’s time to Move On, often adding “And Look Forward.” Except in this case, as with other examples of this like the post-Watergate years and the Iran-Contra scandal, what this taught Republicans is that they can get away with it because to “heal the nation” or whatever, Democrats will just let them slide.

Pierce, for his part, wrote another piece the morning of the first Trump inauguration and pondered the following: “On his last day, despite all the interviews he’s given about how his faith in the American people has grown stronger, it’s hard to believe he doesn’t look out the windows of the White House now and wonder if he truly understood the country and its people at all.”

I don’t know. His statement recently that division is the Real Problem was the kind of maddening institutionalism that I feel history will not look too kindly on, as if it’s not just say Trump’s mass deportation plan that is bad, it’s also the opposition to it that is also bad.

The problem with this sort of high-minded ideal of American politics is it is woefully inadequate for the time. It is striking an old-timey boxing pose and declaring to a deranged authoritarian madman “I shall engage you good sir in a gracious test of pugilistic skills” while said deranged authoritarian madman is coming at you with a broken bottle and brass knuckles. As Lee Papa, the Rude Pundit, said last month:

Biden’s tragic flaw, like its been for so many Democrats, is believing that if you just show your opponent that you’re playing by the rules honestly, they’ll respect that and work with you. It simply doesn’t work that way anymore (if it ever truly did). The price we now have to pay for that fucked up adherence to an idealized past is incalculable. Despite all the good that Biden did do, much of what he got done will now be reversed by these jabbering jackals who could give a shit less if it hurts people to do it. Despite having made a significant contribution to helping the working class, mitigating climate change, getting us out of a pandemic, and more, that failure by Biden to evolve, even after having a front-row seat to Republicans obstructing Barack Obama endlessly, even while watching Republicans devolve in increasing and frightening ways, will be his legacy.

So, the sad and existential irony of it all is this line of thinking has put our institutions in grave danger. The Harris campaign did try to warn us of this, however, at the same time didn’t do nearly enough to send a message to voters that she and other Dems get that those very same institutions they want to protect are in dire need of reform. Biden took some very real steps to steer the country away from one of the institutionalist gospels, neoliberal economics, however, this was never mentioned during the campaign. Given the fact that the American people are deeply pissed at our institutions and feel like they have abandoned them, it would have served Harris well to make this part of her message. Instead, Trump’s nonsensical babblings were taken by a significant number of voters outside his wacko base as a sign he would shake things up. I have a feeling the buyer’s remorse is already starting to settle in for that particular set of soft Trump supporters.

Democrats will have an opportunity to at least begin to fix the damage Trump will do to our institutions, maybe even starting after the 2026 midterms. However, they need to not do things like tell us for months how dangerous these people are and then talk about how they can work with them or pose for photos. That may be what the institutionalist thinkers believe is right because they can’t quit their consensus addiction. But this is not the world we live in at the moment, and it’s also extremely confusing for voters to see Biden smiling with Trump after months of correctly telling us he’s the devil.

To defend the norms and the crumbling institutions, playing by the “rules” simply is not going to work. It hasn’t worked. They are using that deep faith in norms and institutions as cover to destroy our country.

Fundamentalist institutionalism is bullshit. It’s not being honest about what is happening in front of us. The moment calls for new tactics, even if they make the Morning Joe crowd wince like John Ritter’s character in Bad Santa. Start with getting much more aggressive, realizing the importance of communication for our leaders, and working on creating a media ecosystem that counters theirs. And for God’s sake, stop acting like they are merely friends who we disagree with and gosh we can find common ground (looking at you, Bernie, Ro Khanna, and Jared Polis). We can return to our norms and institutions of the Glorious Glory of the American System, but first, we need to make sure they will still exist. The institutionalist pundits can snarl and sneer about “not understanding how things work” all they want, but reality has not been their friend and that’s not good for any of us, much less the institutions themselves.

The last word goes to Bob Dylan.