Republicans are panicking
Ronald Wilson Reagan was 78 years, 11 months and 14 days old when he left the office of the presidency at noon on January 20, 1989. He remained history’s oldest US president until Joe Biden, who will be 82 years and 2 months old when he finishes his term of office on January 20, 2025.
At the conclusion of his final term of office Reagan was already exhibiting signs of the neurodegenerative disease that would later end his life. Biden, who is slowing down in word and speech, is not. People who worked with Reagan knew he was losing his mental acuity. People who work with Joe Biden rightly say the opposite.
It therefore made no rational sense (though plenty of sleazy political sense) when Tennessee Republican Congressman Andy Ogles introduced two articles of impeachment against Vice President Kamala Harris, alleging in one that “Kamala Devi Harris has knowingly misled the people of the United States and the Congress of the United States principally to obfuscate the physical and cognitive well-being of the President of the United States, Joe Biden.” The party of Ronald Reagan, so to speak, just called the kettle black.
In the other resolution Ogles claimed that Harris exhibited a “stark refusal to uphold the existing immigration laws” and a “palpable indifference to people of the United States suffering as a result of the ongoing southern border crisis.” That is also a particularly badly-timed resolution. Unlawful border crossings in the US are currently at an all time low. Crossings would be even fewer had Donald Trump not convinced Republican lawmakers to vote against the bi-partisan border bill. They killed it ostensibly because it included aid to Ukraine, but since they approved aid to Ukraine anyway, there was no downside to the bill. Republican “border crisis” is a red herring.
What does all this mean? It means that Republicans are panicking. They think that Kamala Harris is going to kick old man Trump’s ass in November, and they are doing everything in their puny power to stop her. The problem is that these articles of impeachment obviously betray their desperation, and nobody is going to be fooled except MAGA Republicans who were going to vote for Trump anyway.
We are fortunate in this. Republicans aren’t just afraid of Kamala Harris, they are stupid in their response. Undecided voters will see through this ploy as evidence of their desperation. What’s more, it will underscore the unassailable fact that today’s MAGA Republicans are not serious about fixing America’s problems, but are nothing more than political hacks desperately trying to hold onto power.
What’s even more, Republicans have spent the last several months tearing their hair out over Biden’s alleged declining mental state as the result of his advanced age. Yet they support a candidate who, if elected, would finish as America’s oldest president, and who is obviously already in steep cognitive decline. This is a strategy of people who know they are going to lose. We are fortunate that Republicans are as stupid as they are evil. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.