Now we can say it: the historic election of 2016 has been nullified.  And it's not by the opposition party, not by the mainstream media, not by voter fraud or even tampering by the Russians.  It was nullified by an inside job, by two thirty-something kids.

Imagine for a moment, in a close election, that Hillary Clinton wins in 2016.  Her daughter Chelsea and son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky move into the White House, where they are declared special assistants to the president.  In subsequent days, they go everywhere the president goes.  Marc is present at every photo op, a regular fixture at Oval Office meetings.

With no prior experience in government of any kind at any level, Marc is given vast portfolios in foreign and domestic policy.  Chelsea is sent to foreign countries to meet with world leaders.  Within days of moving in to the White House, Marc and Chelsea begin importing registered Republicans and well known conservatives to helm high-level posts close to the president.

These Oval Office advisers surround the president, where they are instrumental in all important matters domestic and foreign.  Essentially, they reflect the worldview not of the president, but of her daughter and son-in-law.  This is tolerated by Hillary Clinton because they are the only ones she trusts.  It's why they are there in the first place.

Day by day, the people who were with  Hillary during her remarkable campaign victory are purged: Podesta, Mook, and company.  All out.

And day by day, Hillary Clinton's liberal Democratic agenda of big government, high taxation, globalist trade deals, military interventionism, open borders, and DACA is replaced by policies of smaller government, nationalist trade deals, a non-interventionist foreign policy, secure borders, and all the rest.

Would the Democratic Party have tolerated it?  Would the American people have tolerated it?

Steve Bannon's long anticipated exit marks the final chapter of a slow-motion coup d'état.  With notable exceptions (Jeff Sessions, Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller, and Mike Pence), the architects of Donald Trump's long, improbable march to the White House are gone, while there remain the only two people with any enduring power in the Trump administration: Ivanka and Jared Kushner. 

It is laughable to accept the ruse of General Kelly blocking Jared's and Ivanka's access to the president.  Really?  At breakfast, at lunch, at dinner?  On Air Force One?  At Mar-a-Lago?  Is the omnipresent Kelly keeping Trump's grandkids away from him, too? 

Seven months into Trump's presidency, and there is no wall at the southern border.  Not even a picket fence.  Not a pick or shovel has been committed to the much ballyhooed project.  Conversely, Obama's unconstitutional DACA, which on the campaign trail the president repeatedly promised to cancel, has been extended, with tens of thousands of new work permits issued to illegal aliens.  Who changed the president's mind?

In April, despite the fact that up to this late date, no definitive proof has been offered to the American people, the administration accused Syria of using chemical weapons against its own people, precipitating the launch of missiles against a Syrian air base.  Multiple press accounts at the time reported that the president ordered the attack only after Ivanka, highly distraught at the sight of photos of dead children provided by CNN, tearfully implored her daddy to do so.

This raises the question: had CNN broadcast pictures of dead children killed by Saudi bombers in Yemen, would Ivanka have just as tearfully implored her daddy to launch a missile strike into Saudi Arabia?

With Gary Cohen, Steve Mnuchin, and Dina Powell, the Kushners have invited their Upper-East-Side liberal Democratic buddies into the Oval Office.

How nice that Steve Bannon is now gone.  His presence created such "tension."  Jeff Sessions is out of sight and out of mind.  Let him drone on about sanctuary cities.  When push comes to shove, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan will assure that federal funding is not cut off. 

Kellyanne?  She's a harmless smiley face reassuring the base that despite appearances, all is well, and anyway, "Gorsuch is on the Court."  Stephen Miller is still there to write the flowery speech with the bold programs that will never be translated into law or put into effect.  And the vice president is waiting in the wings, just in case The Donald loses interest.

Meanwhile, two thirty-somethings have accomplished the one thing even more amazing than Trump's historic victory: they've nullified it.

Rabelais is the nom de plume of a patriot living in the heartland.