The Infirm and the Fearful

 

Make no mistake- we are going through as wrenching a period as WWII, an outcome uncertain and the changes to our society, our world, will be permanent changes.   Whether they usher in a prolonged dark period or a return to some form of enlightened, free society will depend on steadfast leadership.  So far, I don’t see it.   What I see is the old and the fearful.

The people now at the helm and that are charged with the responsibility of guiding us through this period are simply old and decrepit.  President Joe Biden is an old 78, and obviously struggling with dementia.  If he puts his pants on with the zipper in the front 5 days in a row, he’s having a good week.  He often struggles to find the right words.  This is a guy that you would not let house sit while you were on vacation and have confidence that he would remember to feed your cat or water your plants.  Biden makes the old Soviet premiers—Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko look like spring chickens.   And Biden is at the top of the decision making tree.

Then we have the old war horse, Nancy Pelosi at 80 is still browbeating legislators, spinning, threatening, and manipulating to advance her goal of a one party, big government system.  Unprincipled and undemocratic, she is ruthless and as power obsessed as any woman in world history.

Finally, there is Anthony Fauci, elected to nothing, but granted de facto unchecked power by the emergence of COVID19.  At age 80, Fauci’s proclamations, often incorrect unsupported by evidence, carry the weight of legislation.  He is responsible for the needless shutdowns, the closing of schools and businesses and the nonsense of double masking, masking of children, and social isolation of our nation.  Without regard to the economic and emotional costs, his inconsistent views have done more permanent damage to our society than Osama bin Laden.   The grotesque aspect of Fauci is that he has been in the SAME BUREAUCRATIC GOVERNMENT JOB FOR ALMOST 40 YEARS, AND HAS NEVER TAKEN ANY PERSONAL RISK, YET DEEMS HIMSELF TO BE AN EXPERT ON ADVISING AN ENTIRE SOCIETY ON MANAGING RISK, and has been empowered to do so. 

We are at a critical juncture as we set a path for the nation’s future, and three of the people that are making crucial long lasting policy decisions themselves have very limited futures.

Not only are we facing multiple threats with ancient leadership, our leadership class is stoking and magnifying fear.  During the last existential crisis of the West, we at least had FDR (“we have nothing to fear but fear itself”) and Winston Churchill (“we shall fight them on the beaches… we shall never surrender”).  This week, in the face of a pathogen with a 99.7% survival rate, the new head of the CDC Rochelle Walensky announced that (“I am scared…I feel a sense of impending doom”).   How did this woman ever achieve a leadership position?   A Margaret Thatcher she is not.  Imagine if our other leaders had said such a thing at critical times—Eisenhower on D-Day, the Founders that knew they would be hanged by the British for signing the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln after the First Battle of Bull Run.  In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson recounts how Winston Churchill, against the advice of his advisors, would sometimes go out on his roof at night to observe some of the air battles going on overhead during the Battle of Britain.   How is this nation supposed to overcome when leaders like Walensky are so timid, uninspiring and anxiety-ridden?   This is a time to present courage, fortitude and equanimity if you are in the public eye.

I have great faith in the American people and great faith in the spirit of the nation, but it will be difficult for us to overcome these obstacles until we force the obsolete and the timid to move off the stage.