The “elites” of today’s “establishment” continue to thrive because of the forbearance of the voters. Forbearance is not the same as consent. The former is a passive sentiment, while the latter is active.

Passivity is a good way to define the citizenship of the United States in 2018. The evidence of civic disengagement is manifest throughout the same Fox News poll, in big ways and small.

The biggest story of the day continues to be the investigation, into Trump and Russia, being conducted by Robert Mueller, who has been a top figure in American politics for well over a decade. Yet, according to Fox News, 27 percent of Americans have no opinion of him.

That is the same percentage that has no opinion of Mitch McConnell, who as Senate majority leader is perhaps the most powerful person in Congress. Shockingly, 43 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of McConnell — despite the fact that it was his efforts, more than anybody else’s, that kept Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat open until Trump could name a replacement last year. On the whole, nobody in the last generation has done more than McConnell to prevent a full-blown takeover of the judiciary by the American Left. Perhaps Republicans don’t care about that, but I’d say it is much more likely they don’t know about it.