You’d think everyone in Washington was wearing pearls, given how frequently people are accused of grasping them these days. Saddened by the East Wing demolition? Well, “losers who are quick to criticize need to stop their pearl clutching,” White House adviser Stephen Cheung said in October. Surprised George Santos was pardoned? He’d like you to know that he won’t be “paying too much attention to the pearl-clutching” of his critics. Troubled by that racist Young Republican Telegram chat that leaked? “I refuse to join the pearl-clutching,” JD Vance said after the outcry.

Dismissing one’s critics as prissy pearl-clutchers is hardly new, as anyone who’s gotten into online political fights is well aware. But lately it seems to have graduated to the top levels of government. And it’s not just M

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