Voltaire wrote that "It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong." This is precisely what has brought the intent to destroy Donald Trump upon his head. He won the 2016 election by speaking to the American people, not the jaded, constrained political class. His assessment of the public's frustration with the D.C. establishment was wise and correct. Hillary Clinton was, and remains, just another authoritarian pol who has nothing but contempt for said people, so it should have been no surprise that she lost. But a huge shock it was, and the Left has yet to accept that electoral outcome. So leftists are still trying to undo those results. Trump's many successes as president only serve to incite their wrath.

Adam Schiff is just the most recent autocratic bully to grace our national politics in apparent ignorance and disavowal of the law, due process and the Constitution. He has assembled a star chamber in a pathetic effort to find something, anything, with which to impeach President Trump. That his own party is supporting him in this wretched endeavor is a sad commentary on the state of the Democratic Party; Democrats stick together like fleas on a dog, no matter how sick the dog.

Until yesterday, few, if any, Republicans pushed back, to the eternal frustration of conservatives outside the Beltway. Did storming Schiff's secret search for a crime do any good? Time will tell. The mystery is why Republicans have put up with Schiff's nonsense until now. He's an obvious egomaniac intent upon destroying the president by any means that might work. His obsession is a blight upon the House, his party, and his district.

Watching Schiff operate brings to mind numerous characters from literature, all of them either obsessed, evil, or both: Inspector Javert from Les Misérables, Simon Legree of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Danglars of The Count of Monte Cristo, Iago. Schiff is a bad guy. There is no reason for his obsession with taking Trump down except his own inadequacy.

Schiff is unresponsive to conscience. He is the depraved antagonist, corrupted by power. When Pelosi appointed him to be chairman of the Intelligence Committee, she unleashed a monster, and she is loath to rein him in. He's gone rogue, mad with clout.

Hugo's Inspector Javert believed in the law as he saw it above all else, a law without mercy. Simon Legree needed, above all, to destroy Tom, a good man of faith, because he knew that Tom was a better man. (Trump is certainly a far better man than Schiff.) Danglars was a man possessed by hatred and envy of Edmund Dantès.

Adam Schiff is a combination of all three. He is not as good a man as Javert but is equally obsessed with destroying his nemesis. Simon Legree enjoys his power over Tom and delights in abusing him to his death. And like Danglars, Schiff is driven by overpowering rage that Trump is our president. It is anyone's guess what Hillary had promised him had she won.

Voltaire also wrote:

So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.

The Republicans should have been pushing back against Schiff's ridiculous "impeachment inquiry" from day one. Appointing Schiff to head the Intel Committee was a huge mistake on Pelosi's part. This is not Kafka's The Trial! It is the leadership of the Democratic Party that should be putting a stop to Schiff's fruitless search for a crime with which to impeach Trump. Nothing the president did in his efforts to get to the bottom of the Russia collusion hoax was out of line. Is it not the job of all our government officials to root out corruption wherever it flourishes? Now we know that our State Department is shot through with Obama holdover leftists. Is it any wonder that Trump turned to Giuliani?

Adam Schiff should not only have been censured; he should be impeached. His fabricated account of Trump's conversation with Zelensky would have certainly seen a Republican booted from the House had such a thing occurred. The double standards that exist in D.C. are despicable but hardly surprising. With blessed few and marvelous exceptions, the entrenched members of both parties there are morally obtuse. To quote Voltaire once again: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Indeed. The Clinton-invented Russia hoax was absurd. Schiff is committing an atrocity with his disgraceful star chamber.

Graphic credit Donkey Hotey (cropped).