He finds himself out of power; and this condition is intolerable to him

Democracies stick around long enough and you begin to see that the wailings and caterwaulings of today regarding the dire state of the nation have echoes in the past. Our press today has a surfeit of twenty-seven year olds who know literally nothing but we are missing the Edmund Burkes of yesteryear. To be fair, though, Burke was a genius of many accomplishments and not only a writer of brilliant prose and philosophy.

From Observations on a Late Publication, Intituled "The Present State of the Nation", 1769 by Edmund Burke.

George Grenville, or a political ally, had published a pamphlet justifying Britain's taxing of the American colonies (with the Stamp Act) on the grounds of the parlous condition of Britain.

Burke tackles the pamphlet's arguments in detail but has this to say about the likely motivation for the argument in the first place. Emphasis added.

The true cause of his drawing so shocking a picture is no more than this; and it ought rather to claim our pity than excite our indignation; he finds himself out of power; and this condition is intolerable to him. The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition. It is something that rays out of darkness, and inspires nothing but gloom and melancholy. Men in this deplorable state of mind find a comfort in spreading the contagion of their spleen. They find an advantage too; for it is a general, popular error, to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. If such persons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves, they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the consequences.

Whatever this complainant's motives may be, the effects can by no possibility be other than those which he so strongly, and I hope truly, disclaims all intention of producing. To verify this, the reader has only to consider how dreadful a picture he has drawn in his 32nd page, of the state of this kingdom; such a picture as, I believe, has hardly been applicable, without some exaggeration, to the most degenerate and undone commonwealth that ever existed. Let this view of things be compared with the prospect of a remedy which he proposes in the page directly opposite, and the subsequent. I believe no man living could have imagined it possible, except for the sake of burlesquing a subject, to propose remedies so ridiculously disproportionate to the evil, so full of uncertainty in their operation, and depending for their success in every step upon the happy event of so many new, dangerous, and visionary projects. It is not amiss, that he has thought proper to give the public some little notice of what they may expect from his friends, when our affairs shall be committed to their management.

Taking stock - in 1769 Burke faced an adversary characterized by:

Intolerable resentment arising from being out of power.

Disappointed ambition.

Gloom and melancholy regardless of actual conditions.

The loudest complainers are the least interested in the common welfare.

Ambitions for power careless about means or consequences.

Remedies so ridiculously disproportionate to the evil.

Remedies so full of uncertainty in their operation.

Remedies depending for their success on so many new, dangerous, and visionary projects.

Sure sounds like the responses of the vested elites to the election of 2016 in which their self-serving interests were voted out of office by the citizens of the nation.