Ms. Claes seems upset to discover her Party “act[ing] like Republicans”. Which is to say, acting out of power-lust in disregard for rules and principles; putting self-interest above society’s interests; acting with hypocrisy, or greed, or lawlessness. No need to continue naming its many faces; we all know corruption when we see it. And we can find it everywhere.

The Founders of this country fully acknowledged that these failings are part of human nature, and while some succumb less than others, those in power succumb most of all. They carefully crafted the Constitution to mitigate these tendencies, and divided government in ways to check such corruption as much as possible in the very design of our government.

The view of our Founders is that all with power, all politicians, all business leaders, all bureaucrats and regulators, all leaders of unions, or universities, all leaders of institutions or social movements, all humans share this aspect of human nature and thus this tendency for power to corrupt.

But the modern view is that corruption may be rampant among those Others, but Our Side has none of it. So Progressives see corruption endemic in big business, and with Conservatives and Republicans, and Wall Street, and evangelical religions, and the military/industrial complex, and petroleum companies; while Conservatives see it in government and agencies, social leaderships, unions, advocates of Climate Change and illegal immigrants.

At the same time, Progressives hold that we can safely entrust our government and regulators with great power over society, because they think politicians and bureaucrats, union leaders, leaders of social movements, all of them on Their Side have an incorruptible human nature. They will always act in the best interests of everyone and in accordance with the highest principles. So the more power we give them, the better it is for all of us.

This is the very foundation of Progressivism: the more power we give government, the more able it is to protect everyone and provide for everyone. When we are totally controlled, we will be most free.

Of course, that is utterly false, utterly Utopian fantasy; because power corrupts, people make mistakes, people vary in competence. So when Ms. Claes sees her own Party acting like that Other Party, it must be quite disorienting to discover they also have the same human failings as all the others.