For the second time in as many months, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 81, experienced an … episode … on August 30, suddenly freezing, going silent, and appearing to have broken contact with the external world while talking with reporters.

Dr. Brian Monahan, the US Capitol’s attending physician, declared McConnell “medically clear” the next day, noting that “occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery.” McConnell sustained a concussion after falling in March.

But among the aging American political class, McConnell’s far from alone when it comes to recent public displays of something that most people think looks like senility. Two other names (not the only ones) that come to mind are US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), 90, and US president Joe Biden,  80.

All this has people talking about things like age limits, term limits, and “competency tests.” Which is fine, I guess, but it seems to me that we may be better off with wandering attention spans, sudden descents into sleep, etc., than we would be with these people still at the top of their games.

“In that moment of amnesiac innocence,” Australian blogger Caitlin Johnstone writes of McConnell’s latest freeze-up, “you’d never be able to tell from looking at Mitch McConnell how many people he’s helped kill. …. All you’d see is a man. A cute, harmless, befuddled old man.”

How many people HAS McConnell helped kill? It’s hard to envision any answer which doesn’t include the word “million.”

As a member of the US Senate since 1984 and its GOP faction’s leader since 2006, he’s been one of the main political figures behind deadly US military interventions around the world. He’s openly backed, and whipped Republican support for, these wars of choice, and worked hard to defeat even half-hearted congressional attempts to rein them in.

In a world where justice meant anything, McConnell would probably be living out his golden years in a senior citizens’ complex back in Kentucky — specifically, FMC Lexington, a federal prison  for inmates requiring constant medical attention.

Barring that — or, better yet, eliminating his job entirely — perhaps we’re better of with him in Washington. If he retires, he’ll almost certainly be replaced by someone just as evil, but still possessed of relative youth and mental acuity.

Every time Mitch nods off or freezes up at a meeting, or misses a vote to get a hip replacement or botox injection, there’s at least a chance of innocent lives being spared.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

As I write this on the morning of Tuesday, August 29, forecasts predict that the storm known as Idalia will make landfall as a Category 3 Hurricane early tomorrow, about 50 miles to the west of my home outside Gainesville, Florida, then come right at me.

Any or all of those elements (when, where, how strong) could suddenly change, but two things almost certainly won’t:

First, within hours of the “all clear” signal, media and politicians will start clamoring for the President of the United States to board Air Force One and fly directly to wherever the devastation is worst and first responders are most overworked, because REASONS.

Secondly, not too long after, the President of the United States will board Air Force One and fly directly to the center of the chaos, because POLITICS.

Runways will be diverted from supply deliveries to accommodate the presidential visit.

Hangars will house Secret Service agents and press pool members instead of specialists arriving to save lives, restore power, etc.

Roadways will be commandeered for the presidential motorcade and police escort instead of cleared for ambulances and other rescue vehicles, trucks full of water and food, etc.

The president will arrive, get his picture taken with his arms around  survivors in front of their wrecked homes, shake a few other politicians’ hands, promise millions or billions in aid, then jet back to DC, after which people will finally get back to handling a bad situation.

None of that is necessary, but it  happens every time.

How much airspace was restricted,  for how long, between Los Angeles and Honolulu last week so that Joe Biden could fly in, glad-hand, mug for the cameras, and fly out? How many tons of badly needed supplies were delayed? How many cops, firefighters, and medics were distracted from helping people in need so a politician could be seen “doing something?”

I’m not a big fan of presidents in general, but I’ll be tempted to vote for the re-election of the next president who sees a large-scale disaster and resists the temptation to visit.

President Biden, after Idalia has her way with my area or some other, please just let us all know how much you care in a short television address, explain why you’re staying out of the way, then go play a round of golf or something. We’ll all be better off for your decision to handle things that way.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

“The goal of our declaration of economic independence is simple,” according to Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign website: “We win. They lose.”

By “we,” DeSantis presumably means everyday Americans. But he never really explains who “they” are, other than to reference shadowy “elites” no fewer than five times, and China a whopping 14 times, in his “declaration.”

He claims he will “protect entrepreneurship from central planners” … with vigorous central planning.

He’ll “demand that American companies act in accordance with American interests.” By doing what Boss Ron tells them to do.

He “will not tolerate woke corporations using ESG as an end-run around our constitutional system to impose heavy-handed, left-wing edicts through concentrated private power.”  But at the same time, “there will be no ideological litmus test for getting a loan, establishing a bank account, or running a business. ”

Which is it going to be, Ron? Can those “woke corporations” run their businesses the way they want to, or do they have to pass your ideological litmus tests?

He “will create a fair labor market” — with draconian immigration policies to exclude the vast majority of humanity from that labor market. If that means that American workers can’t get — or afford — many things for lack of willing hands to make them (and because he’ll prevent Chinese companies from selling them), too bad for us.

He reminds me a lot of US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Like Warren, most of his career has been spent in so-called “public service.” Other than a couple of years in private practice while preparing his first congressional campaign, he’s spent his entire adult life drawing a government paycheck. Public school teacher. Navy attorney. US Attorney. Congressman. Governor.

And, like Warren, when he sees a problem — real, imagined, or manufactured — his automatic response is to propose “solving” that problem by putting him in charge, with sweeping powers to “fix” it by ordering people around.

If there’s a difference between the two, it’s that elitist political careerist Elizabeth Warren doesn’t run around pretending to hate elitist political careerists, while that’s part and parcel of elitist political careerist Ron DeSantis’s schtick.

Fortunately, there’ another similarity between the two. Like Elizabeth Warren, Ron DeSantis looks set to fail in his bid for a major party’s presidential nomination.

That’s a small favor for which I’m duly grateful to the Almighty. Even if it means putting up with his misrule in Florida for another two years.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY