Why Do We Accept Government by an Invalid?

By Jeffrey Blehar

Wednesday, January 01, 2025

 

In the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day, a terrorist committed an atrocity in New Orleans, driving a truck into a crowd of Bourbon Street revelers and then emerging to spray automatic gunfire on the crowd. The scale of the attack is as yet undetermined: Several IEDs were discovered near the scene; the murderer, an apparently self-radicalized Muslim and U.S. Army veteran flying the flag of ISIS, is suspected to have had help; and a federal manhunt for potential accomplices is currently under way as I write this.

 

In news that may or may not be related — it is currently impossible to know, and the only connecting thread may be the simple fact of a high-profile holiday — a Tesla Cybertruck loaded with fireworks and flammable materials was driven up to the valet doors of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and detonated, killing the driver and injuring at least nine. The fact that both killers rented their vehicles using the same low-profile app is suggestive but not even remotely conclusive.

 

I am not here to waste words talking about the grave details of these matters. It is still New Year’s Day, and I must wring a last few hours of repose out of it before plunging once again into the maelstrom tomorrow. I am here only to ask why we as Americans have become so cavalier about the fact that our president is simply unavailable for response outside of press releases and official tweets during times of potential crisis like these, until such point where Biden stumbles out to peer into a teleprompter — his fogged eyes squinted into mere dashes — and slurs a half-articulated “update” speech. Was anyone reassured by that speech? Did it alleviate anyone’s unease that the sitting president of the United States is a half-functional, quasi-vegetative person at this point?

 

I am also here to ask why we as Americans have become so cavalier about the fact that tolerating a president who is permanently mentally incapacitated invites crises like these. Nineteen days yet remain until the animate shell of Joe Biden formally departs from the presidency. Pray for peace and hold your breath until then.