When someone deploys pardons not as instruments of mercy, but as chips to reward donors, protect cronies, and neutralize legal jeopardy for allies, while simultaneously weaponizing prosecution against critics, the message becomes unmistakable: laws are negotiable for those on the right side of power.
For people who devoted their careers to the rule of law, prosecutors, agents, judges, rank-and-file public servants, this isn’t merely dispiriting. It is corrosive. These are men and women who took oaths, and believe in neutral principles, not partisan vendettas. When they see accountability replaced by allegiance, their faith isn’t just shaken. The system is broken.
Our constitutional infrastructure, the legislature, the Justice Department, the Supreme Court — can only function when political interference is excluded from the machinery of j governmenthot. When it is not, even the most principled people face an impossible choice: stay silent and watch norms crumble, or speak up and risk retaliation.
The danger isn’t theoretical. A system that loves power more than law will, inevitably, produce a politics in which the only real crime is disloyalty.
And once that threshold is crossed, restoring legitimacy is exponentially harder than protecting it ever was.
Our preferences and tastes varied over the years, with a series of songs dedicated to or mentioning Lucifer, Satan, aka The Devil.
- Devil in the Blue Dress” — Mitch Ryder & Detroit Wheels (1966)
- “Sympathy for the Devil” — Stones (1968)
- “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” — Charlie Daniels
- “Running With the Devil” — Van Halen
- “Devil’s Haircut” — Beck
- “Devil Inside” — INXS
- “Friend of the Devil” — Grateful Dead
-
Kanye West references the devil constantly; so does Tyler, the Creator era Goblin
THERE ARE LOTS “devil in _____” happens to be one of those meme-phrases that keeps growing..
Foundational / Literal:
- Bible: “the devil” (obviously — this is the root)
- Faust / Mephistopheles (Goethe, Marlowe) — the archetype of deal-making devil
- Dante’s Inferno — Lucifer frozen in Cocytus
- major modern titular pop-culture instances:
- Devil in a Blue Dress — Walter Mosley novel + 1995 Denzel film
- The Devil Wears Prada — Lauren Weisberger novel + Meryl Streep / Hathaway film
- The Devil Is a Woman — 1935 Sternberg / Dietrich
- The Devil’s Advocate — Pacino / Keanu 1997
- The Devil’s Double — Uday Hussein’s double — Dominic Cooper 2011
- The Devil’s Candy — 2015 indie horror
- The Devil at 4 O'Clock — Spencer Tracy 1961
-
The Devil and Daniel Webster — short story 1936 / film
Fashion / Persona archetype:
- femme fatale = “devil in pinstripes”
- “devil in lace”
- “She’s the devil in red heels.”
- “devil in a red dress” (common lyric motif — see e.g. Chris Brown “Deuces” remix, or The Weeknd “The Hills” echoing that archetype verbally)
- jazz/pulp tradition (really important):
-
“_____ in lace” / “_____ in silk” / “_____ in red” — midcentury noir paperback cover copy formulas often literally used “devil”
(This is where Prada/blue dress is genealogically downstream, the pulp boilerplate turned ironic/chic)Advertising / Slogans:
- Hot sauce brands constantly: “devil’s spit,” “devil’s fire”
-
“Diablo” tier naming in fast food menus (Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr / Hardee’s, etc.)
Gaming:
- Diablo (Blizzard)
- Shin Megami Tensei (demons/devils)
- Cuphead — antagonist literally The Devil
- meta-linguistic cliches:
- “The devil is in the details”
- “Better the devil you know”
- “dance with the devil”
- The collector’s insight: the meme formula
- It keeps working because it’s:
- sex + power + consumption + transgression