This deranged con job proves what sneering Republicans think of Americans
I am so done with this whole Mitch McConnell thing.
We’re now past six weeks of this ridiculous crap, and the silence surrounding the Kentucky senator’s condition long ago eclipsed the point of disturbing to become completely absurd and intolerable. But that just seems to be the Republican way. All we get are vague justifications and likely manipulated “proof of life” photos rather than actual explanations.
Has McConnell been struck mute? Is he in a fugue state? Is he deceased? If the answers to all three are “No,” then there is zero reason why he shouldn’t be able to appear in a video to explain what the hell is actually going on with him.
Yet not even the disempowered Democratic Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, has been able to communicate with or receive a genuine update on McConnell’s condition.
This thing all began on June 14, when paramedics reportedly responded to a brief loss of consciousness from a fall at McConnell’s home. His office issued a fuzzy statement that day about a subsequent hospitalization, without explaining more.
And there hasn’t been a whole lot that’s made sense since. A couple of people independently reported phantom 20-minute conversations with the senator during which he was supposedly sentient and alert, but evidently not so much that he could actually communicate with the outside world.
Then on July 12 came The Photo That Launched a Million Memes. The one with a smiling McConnell sitting up in a hospital bed dressed in a red-checkered shirt, a copy of that morning’s Washington Post in his lap, his sometimes-devoted wife Elaine Chao by his side. The photo’s authenticity was purportedly confirmed, but who among us really believes that?
Somehow, a clarifying statement from McConnell’s office on Monday, designed to update us on the senator’s condition, managed to clarify nothing at all. It noted that he wouldn’t be returning to work this week, while quoting him as saying, “I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with my intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders. Unfortunately, that means I won’t be able to make it to Fancy Farm, Kentucky this Saturday.”
An accompanying statement noted that McConnell was “not yet medically cleared” to leave the mysterious rehab facility where he was being treated. It also featured the obligatory smiling photo of him being comforted by his wife.
If we don’t trust the legitimacy of anything going on here, of course, it’s their own damn fault. The Republicans have shown themselves to be lying sacks of garbage, and this McConnell mystery fiasco pours more fuel atop that.
We’ve since heard that McConnell is now mostly afflicted only with a mild case of pneumonia. But if that’s all it is, I’ve never heard of a case of pneumonia that prevents you from going on camera.
You know who would never allow this insanity to move forward were the situation reversed and it was a Democrat pulling this disappearing act? Mitch McConnell, that’s who. Say what you will about the man being (having been?) a duplicitous, cheating scoundrel who plays (played?) by no one’s rules but his own; he doesn’t (didn’t?) take any of this kind of crap from anyone.
Meanwhile, Governor Beshear has been neutered by his Republican-controlled state legislature into oblivion. We’ve all heard about how the party is stalling any announcement or info about McConnell until August 3, the date after which an immediate special election can’t be called to fill the seat. But who knows what the real motive here is?
Some people obviously know what’s going on, and they aren’t saying a word. It’s just unbelievable. How can this be legal? It’s obviously not moral or ethical – further evidence that this rogue cult does whatever it wants and always seems to get away with it.
Like so much that’s happened during the Trump years, this is completely unacceptable. And yet the Democrats, even as they scream and shout to try to change up the narrative, accept it.
We’re all being institutionally gaslit with outrageous political theater. Every carefully worded statement about the health of a man who has vanished from view seems engineered to answer every question except the one everyone is asking. It’s as if the Republicans have invented a new medical specialty: strategic ambiguity.
Imagine applying a similar standard of non-information in other areas of life
Your airline pilot pauses on the runway for 15 minutes without saying a word. A flight attendant gets on the PA and calmly says, “Our pilot has consulted with experts and remains fully committed to today’s flight.”
The surgeon who is about to perform your colonoscopy freezes during pre-op for half an hour before you’re put under anesthesia. No one bothers to tell you what’s going on.
“Everything OK?” you finally ask.
A hospital publicist enters the room to assure you, “The doctor appreciates your concern and looks forward to continuing a distinguished career.”
Your Uber driver steers your car into a lake. It begins filling with water.
“What happened?” you ask.
“The vehicle remains operational,” comes the reply from the nonplussed driver.
At some point, language itself becomes parody. And that’s where we’re at now with the McConnell debacle.
When someone occupies one of the most consequential positions in American government, as McConnell does – helping shape policy, judicial appointments, budgets, and the lives of 342.7 million Americans – the public has a legitimate interest in knowing whether that person can perform the job. We deserve to know whether or not that person is comatose or still drawing breath. That’s democracy.
Instead, we’re handed the political equivalent of a shrug.
We’re all just expected to ignore what we can plainly see while accepting the official explanation that somehow manages to explain nothing.
It’s the same exhausting script over and over: trust us, don’t ask questions, your eyes are mistaken, Senator McConnell is on the road to recovery. If he isn’t, we’ll let you know when we feel like it.
It’s really a masterpiece of misinformation, manipulation and deception on a grand scale, designed to keep us all in the dark. The McConnell situation is much like the one surrounding the war in Iran. Covertness and subterfuge carry the day, and so a senator’s condition is turned into a spectator sport. Information is withheld just enough to keep speculation alive, then the press and public are scolded for speculating.
The whole thing clearly is designed to drive us all stark-raving bonkers. Chaos, after all, is the point. And so in the case of McConnell, we’re left groping for answers that are as elusive as the gatekeepers themselves.
If the senator is healthy enough to continue serving, which seems highly unlikely, explain why he’s not around. If he isn’t, say why. If the situation is evolving, tell us. Adults can handle complexity. It honestly shouldn’t be this difficult.
What we can’t reconcile is an endless procession of half-truths and non-truths in which reality itself is treated as classified information.
(Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.)
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as a scoreboard in the background displays "Trump 45" and "Trump 47", referring to Trump as the nation's 45th president and his bid to become the 47th president, during a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S. October 22, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
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