“Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves.”
– William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
“They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”
– Often attributed to Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand
The Democratic election postmortem immediately descended into public blame-gaming - as expected. When Joe Biden was forced off the ticket in late July, the conspirators issued a party line that he was to be praised as a veritable George Washington — in the spirit of Washington’s farewell address of 1796 about why it was a good thing for the first president not to run for a third term.