Washington’s failure is unprecedented. Congress’s job approval score is 17%, less than half that of this President. More Americans than not report the media does a poor job “supporting democracy.”

Still, the establishment’s self-regarding elites cannot abandon their highest view of themselves. They are the answer to all our problems. How can they count on the little people to build a better culture, society, and economy? From their high perch, they, and only they, must command it. Lights, news media, action: Another top-down, artificial, political solution rolls down the establishment’s assembly line. This program, Washington promises, will work better than the last. Only their legislative wish-making can make our problems fade.

Adapting Churchill, legislative wish-making is a lie, wrapped in a hoax, inside a deception. It lies at the core of Washington’s culture of dishonesty. Like many frauds, it is seductive: It promises easy riches. What would each of us have to do if we stopped pretending that the work of the nation was in our own and not Washington’s hands?