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Was this the saddest week in American politics since the cruel, boorish, lawless conman was reelected?
What happened was, not only was the current President exploring new possibilities in law breaking and corruption, but we also learned that the previous President’s declining mental acuity was worse than we thought and started earlier than we thought.
Start with Joe Biden. In 2020, after an unimpressive showing in New Hampshire, he's handed the nomination based largely on an endorsement from South Carolina Congressmen James Clyburn, who can deliver for Joe an overwhelming win there, and everyone else clears the field. He beats Trump, but not by a lot, yet convinces himself he is the only person who can do it. Four years later, despite clear physical decline and bad polls, Joe decides to violate his implied pledge to serve one term, and no one, not his family, staff, cabinet or other Democrats bother to tell him or the American people he was no longer able to perform his duties.
Some have speculated it was “group think,” a phenomenon where everyone persuades one another that they are not actually seeing what is in front of their eyes. Others say they were clear-eyed, but still held in their imaginations the unproven theory that only Joe Biden could win in November. And so by keeping his infirmity a secret they were, in their own minds, protecting the Republic. It was deep hubris, or at best poor judgment, that only they in their wisdom could choose the Democratic nominee. These fools, one has to say, just betrayed us.
And look where we are. Barbarians, cruel and incompetent, are in control, sacking and pillaging as Barbarians do. Which leads us to the lawless conman's week.
It seems our President thought it acceptable to host a dinner for potential customers for his crypto business. By “host” I mean he collected from his invited "guests" $145 million, who learned how to bribe him even more effectively by "investing" in his opaque crypto scheme. In this administration, the only thing transparent is the corruption, itself.
So this week we blew right past anger and landed on compound sadness, that one President and his staff misled the American people for years, and then believed they could continue the subterfuge for another four. And that another was still practicing his routine corruption in public, without shame, apology, or fear of the law.
We are in real trouble and have been for ten years, and now I must add Joe Biden and those closest to him to my list of disappointments.
