ROGER SIMON: Moral Narcissism and the Show Trial of Donald Trump.

Allow me to be a tad self-referential because I think, at least to some degree, the answer can be found in my 2016 book,—actually written before Trump won the nomination and with few specific references to him—“I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic If It Hasn’t Already.”

The narcissism I was referring to was not the traditional kind based on the Greek youth Narcissus’ fascination with his own image, but a narcissism of ideas, of “moral” self-description.

I explained it this way: What you proclaim, what you say you believe, is what makes you good, what makes you important—not the actual results of those beliefs, which are irrelevant.

Biden’s recent cancelation of the Keystone pipeline could be described as a purely morally narcissistic act—proclaimed as something significant for the environment when in reality all it does is put people out of work and give comfort to our enemies as America becomes more energy dependent. (Ironically, it also has negative environmental repercussions, forcing the oil to be transported by more risky rail means.)

John Kerry is a moral narcissist par excellence, jetting around endlessly in his carbon-belching private plane to save us all from climate change.

Moral narcissism fits today’s liberals and progressives to a “t,” living millionaire and billionaire lives that make hypocrisy the understatement of all time while disdaining the working class, their needs and values, to a degree that would embarrass Marie Antoinette.

Donald Trump undermined all that. He makes and made plenty of proclamations and certainly loves his private plane(s), but he is all about results.

In fact, he makes a point of delivering on his promises, the exact antithesis of standard operating procedure in Washington, where politicians send us endless emails and texts (almost always asking for money) about what they say they believe or are planning, but almost never about what they have accomplished, as if we don’t and shouldn’t care about that.

It’s the way the game has been played in D.C. for ages, quite comfortable and insular when you think about it, and self-replicating. No wonder Trump is loathed.

QED: How Joe Biden abolished ICE without abolishing it.