Forgive me. I’m about to roll in politics.
I post less about politics every year. Whatever the media / internet once was, it’s now a manipulation factory; designed to push us into emotional excess. I don’t want negativity to infect my blog. I won’t try to invoke emotional torrents. I’m not out to hijack the amygdala and pump it full of fear and hate.
But… I’m only human. I might fail.
Please join me. Spit out that black pill (from any political side) to be happy about a disaster that didn’t happen.
First some background: During the teetering decrepit failure of late stage Soviet socialism you couldn’t tell who was in charge. Geezers barnacled into the system were either wicked sharp thinkers or drooling octogenarian losers. Sometimes we didn’t know if this guy or that guy was even alive!
This phase in a system’s decline is when I hear this term:
“Dear leader is fit and healthy until he was dead two weeks ago.”
I happens in all human decrepit organizations. Young, vigorous, transparent systems aren’t like that.
I’ve witnessed that phrase for Popes, for Fidel Castro, for the USSR, and I see it in America.
Sigh… I just know this is going to freak people out. I just want to be happy a specific issue is less actively pissing off a smaller number of people. Please try to join me celebrating the reduction of distraught unhappiness.
“Fit and healthy until dead two weeks ago” happened with Ruth Bader Ginsberg. It sucked. (If that triggers you, I’m very sorry.) The media reported she was very pinnacle of physical and mental fitness but it got weird. Time passes for all things but Ginsberg’s state was cemented in amber.
Every now and then there’d be a photo of her. It looked like they’d propped up a corpse. I’d be told she was as fit as a fiddle but all I could think was “There’s a person who’s earned the right to retire but they’re going to ride that pony into the ground”. Witting or not, intentional or not, Ginsberg become a human wrench in someone else’s political toolbox.
Imagine such a fate! Regardless of your politics you can see that she was stuck in office; unwilling or unable to leave. It was a “dear leader is fit and healthy until she was dead two weeks ago” situation.
What a fate! Imagine being old and frail and 87 but still either going to work or lying about going to work. It’s a self made hell and it’s corrosive to society as a whole.
I hated it. I lived through a lifetime of angry debate about penumbras which emanate. It was exhausting. Every election and every debate and especially every SCOTUS nominee was always about abortion. It never changed, one way or the other.
Then, finally, she was dead. I wonder if it was a relief for her too?
Now it’s 2026. We’re going through a mid-term election and nobody is freaking out about abortion? Have you noticed that? Have you really taken time to appreciate that one thing that was the one thing which steamrolled everything all the time for decades is simmering instead of boiling over? Can we agree that the endless debates sucked? Shrieking about a thing which never changed has faded. That’s good. I’m not saying it’s resolved because such a thing can’t be. But I sure going weeks at a time without someone screaming about it.
I’ve skated on thin ice. Maybe I’m not a good enough writer to walk this tightrope. Neither side is happy now, just as neither side was happy then. I’m just saying both sides are a lot less riled up. That’s good right?
Lets back away from one minefield and probe another. Ready? Here goes…
Lindsey Graham, Senator, is dead. He was in office 33 years. That’s forever. It looks like an old dude dying is really the normal case of an old dude dying; that’s sad enough. It’s unfortunate but not statistically improbable. Graham, because he was in power too long, had already drifted into “fit and healthy until he was dead two weeks ago” terrain. His quick departure was at least clean. I’m neither happy nor sad that Graham is dead. I am relieved we don’t have to go through he “can he fog a mirror” phase of his career.
Which brings me to the unpleasant alternative.
As I type this, Mitch McConnel, Senator, is said to be alive. He’s what “fit and healthy until dead two weeks ago” looks like. Various stuffed shirts said they’d had 20 minute conversations with him. Like some kid talking about their girlfriend in Canada, it’s probably. There are pictures of the Mitch, propped up and looking rough. One might look rough if hospitalized at any age.
I’m not saying he’s dead and there’s a cover up. I’m saying if you have to pose in a photo as proof of life. You should be out of the game.
Mitch has been in power since 1985. The photo below is advanced technology from 1985. Mitch was cementing his ass in his office when this was sexy-tech:
Hospital photos are only the recent phase of Mitch’s endless decline. He’s been blanking out at podiums and occasionally looking like a stroke victim on live video for years. Before they finally unearthed him at a hospital he’d been missing… for weeks. That royally sucks for the nation.
We can agree, regardless of our political bent, that McConnel is decrepit? Life isn’t fair. Some old people are spry and mentally active. He’s not. Mitch could’ve gracefully stepped away from power when he was still fully in control. That time passed and he force the “is he or is he not in charge” game.
Here’s a legitimate question; who’s Chair of the Senate Rules Committee? I mean who’s actually doing whatever is happening. It’s probably not Mitch? Is it a harried 27 year old staffer? We should know.
I’m thankful Graham (71) just plain died clean and simple (not to downplay any sorrow his loss causes his loved ones). I’m pissed with Mitch (84) for dragging the nation through bullshit. I was pissed when Ginsberg (87) did the same thing.
Here’s the big one.
Are you ready for this. Have you thought about it? Are you sitting down?
Joe Biden absolutely wanted us to live through a “Dear leader is fit and healthy…” presidency. He failed. Have you been grateful for that?
It was never entirely clear how “with it” Biden was in 2020. It was more or less illegal to ask. He got more votes than any other candidate in history and was sworn in behind concertina wire… as one does. How “with it” was he?
Here’s Biden in 2022. Is that a strong leader? Is it too much Adderall? That speech pissed me off! Was he “in charge” in 2022 when he actively pissed me off? Was he in charge when the work restrictions he ranted about didn’t happen?
Here’s Biden in 2024. I don’t know why it happened at that exact moment but this photo is from when it happened. People decided en masse Biden wasn’t mentally capable, and things happened.
The photo above is from June 27, 2024. That’s 2 years and 2 weeks ago. What if it hadn’t happened. Would VP Kamala be desperately trying to pretend that President Biden was totally managing everything and shut up about the autopen.
I can’t find a current photo of Biden. During his presidency, you never really knew his condition or location. So much was kept secret. Were you looking forward to legitimate hearings about presidential incapacity? They’d be happening right about now.
Biden also has serious cancer. Did you think about that. Cancer was announced exactly after it was a moot point and not a minute before. Except it was only a moot point when he wasn’t president. Were you looking forward to announcements about which oncologist did or did not visit the white house?
If Biden hadn’t face planted in that debate he might have “won” the election. (Maybe with another record high vote count!) We’d have been stuck (again or still) having no idea who’s in charge.
Whether you like Trump or froth at the mouth at the thought, lets all just say we can tell for damn sure the dude’s alive. We can tell he’s exercising power. When he walks in the room everyone knows who’s boss. Nobody makes jokes about Trump’s autopen.
Take a moment to enjoy what didn’t happen.
McConnel is forcing uncertainty on the Senate. Ginsberg did it to the Supreme Court. Biden tried to do nationally but failed. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt probably did it too.
We actually know who’s in charge. It could have been worse. It has been worse.
Appreciate when disasters don’t happen.
A.C.
