Those who lust for power become its casualties. I have mixed feelings about this. It’s anywhere from painful to cathartic to schadenfreud-tastic to see it in real life.
The Greeks had it all figured out. Roughly, a tragic flaw (called hamaratia and often described in terms like hubris or narcissism) leads invariably to ones nemesis or downfall. (I’m simplifying here, Greek Tragedy fans are asked to be gentle in the comments.) The last part of the tragedy is awful and it’s caused by inner failings in the main character’s personality. They force their own misery into existence.
Fuck going to work. I’m out!
I was reminded of this when hearing someone freak out over Justice Kennedy retiring. Kennedy’s retirement would be boring news if folks hadn’t heaped power on the Court. Don’t stack power in heaps and you won’t freak out over who’s wielding it.
For that matter Kennedy served 30 years on the court and he’s 81. Regardless of politics I think we can all agree he’s earned retirement.
Kennedy doesn’t make me think of Greek Tragedy. His colleague Ginsburg is the tragic one. Unlike Kennedy, who seems to have a spring in his step (despite being 81), his colleague Ginsburg seems to be fading (she is 85).
Ginsburg can retire at any time. But she is trapped. Or rather she has trapped herself.
I’m sure Ginsburg would rather eat a spider sandwich than retire while the president has a “R” in his party affiliation. This is her choice but it turns retirement (which is tied to mortality) into politics. Also, for most of the last decade she had an “out”. From 2008-2016 her favorite party was in power. She could have bailed any time. President Pen And Phone would have exulted in the glory of his wise choice in replacements; just as he did for Justice Sotomayor.
But it’s hard to let go of power once you have it. That’s where tragedy gets its hooks in you. I assume Ginsburg likes making rulings; so she kept working from age 75 – 83 under a regime that (presumably) would arrange a successor to her liking. It’s her prerogative. But it looks to me like the end chapters of a Tragedy. Is grinding out another 8 years in a high stress job a pleasant way to spend your “golden years”?
Then it went from bad to worse. As 2016 lurched toward it’s unlikely conclusion Ginsburg was happily planning (I suspect) a retirement choice that would let the first female president (of the favored party of course) choose a replacement for the first a female Supreme Court Justice. From her point of view it checks all the boxes. (Note: A commenter pointed out that Sandra Day O’Connor was the first female Supreme Court Justice. I’d totally forgotten about her! My bad! Just for the record, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second female justice and Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are the third and fourth respectively. I also note the latter two were both appointed by Barack Obama. If anyone wants to whine that it’s unfair that Trump gets to appoint two justices I want to see them on record whining similarly about his predecessor or it’s just bullshit.)
Except those deplorable nitwits in fly over country voted… wrong. People have been saying since forever “your vote doesn’t count”. It does. At least it did in 2016. Voters shoved a grenade down the jockey shorts of a group who assumed the election had only one possible outcome. Anytime someone tells you that votes don’t matter, remind them that “journalists” on live TV burst into tears on November 8th, 2016.
Ginsburg trapped herself. She’d rather let a lizard shit in her tea than have a replacement selected by the Orange Menace. In her zeal to hand a powerful moment to Hillary, she bottled it up and the moment has nowhere to go. She must work for the next 2 – 6 years (remember that she’s already 85) or Cheeto Jesus gets a third (!) Supreme Court pick.
She had options. She let them go in search of more control. I can’t imagine she’s pleased with how it’s playing out. Isn’t slogging to an office to do difficult work until you’re 91 a form of hell? If she catches a cold and goes belly up Literally Hitler gets to replace her. Talk about pressure!
Ginsburg (asleep in the photo) gets a lot of grief from this image but I think it’s humanizing. She’s sleeping through a boring speech (possibly after a drink or two). Speeches make me zone out too. Imagine that fate until you’re 91 years old.
That’s the whole point of tragedy; not that life sucks but people put themselves in a cage made of their own flaws.
I’ve seen this before. Folks who can’t let go of the power once they have it doom themselves to work until they die. What an awful fate!
Here’s a picture of Robert Byrd. A genuine Klu Klux Kaln member who became the the longest-serving Senator in United States history (51 years). He could have retired anytime. He kept his nose to the grindstone until he died in office at age 92. Perhaps he loved it. Perhaps the best and most awesome thing he could think of to do with his last days on earth was run committee meeting and deal with lobbyists. I’ll never know. To me, it feels like self-created hell on earth. It takes humility to let go. He didn’t have it.
No discussion of tragedy would be complete without Hillary Clinton. She’s still publicly bitching that everyone but her failed to properly arrange her rightful coronation. It strikes me now and always as a tragic end.
Did she look like she enjoyed campaigning for President? Trump seems to bask in it. So did Bill Clinton. But Hillary at best endured it. Does she look happy now? She gives interviews about how Russian paratroopers landed in Podunk Ohio to fuck up her vote count and it sure as hell doesn’t sound like pleasant final chapter in a life well lived. To my ear, she sounds miserable.
She’s only 70 but her health is fading. She got a good chance at the brass ring and that’s pretty impressive. Even without winning she could be satisfied having given it a shot. She’s got retirement houses, a herd of toadies, and enough money to have whatever money can buy. (She’s not Trump rich but she could cut a check for a Lamborghini. Isn’t that enough?) She can honestly say she was a Senator and then Secretary of State (which is pretty impressive regardless of how she got there or what she did with it).
Age catches up with us all. That’s the point.
Another person with similar accomplishments might feel pretty damn fulfilled. But not Hillary. Part of tragedy is wanting what you cannot have. She apparently can’t be happy unless she’s the highest ranked politician among 330,000,000 Americans. That’s a cage of her own making.
If you were miserable every moment when you aren’t the president you’d be miserable right now. Like her.
In my next post I’ll discuss two super badass people who knew when to exit the stage and let the next generation take the wheel (one for the better and one for the worse). Neither has anything to do with current politics or even this century’s politics.