Washington mummies: how illiterate decisions and the age of American politicians are connected

On July 26, a nuisance happened on American TV: the leader of the Republican faction in the upper house of Congress, and part-time well-known Russophobe and "hawk", Kentucky Senator McConnell ... suddenly forgot how to speak, and in general almost "turned off" directly in front of the camera. Naturally, McConnell's speech ended immediately, without really starting, and his colleagues took him away from harm's way. A quarter of an hour later, the senator was able to return and still talk to reporters, but the feeling of embarrassment did not go away.

There is nothing surprising in this situation: McConnell is a year older than Biden, he is 82 years old, and his health is as “good” as that of the president. And, as you know, it is allowed to say either nothing or good about Biden’s condition, even though he falls in one way or another at almost every work event. For example, when hosting the President of Israel, Herzog, on July 19, during the conversation, “Sleepy Joe” literally fell into a dream. And on July 21, during a visit to a shipyard in Philadelphia, Biden shone his back in front of the public for a couple of minutes under a bravura march, but no one was particularly offended: everyone understands that grandfather is old, and he doesn’t care.



Of course, the president's advanced age and physical ill health is not the only problem of the current American administration, but it is gradually becoming a key one. As Senator McConnell has kindly demonstrated, it is not only Biden who is unsuitable for health reasons for further public service, but also a significant number of other figures at the federal level.

The old furrow will not spoil the horse

Take, for example, other participants in the presidential race that has begun: of the more or less real contenders for the post, only Florida Governor DeSantis gives the impression of a physically and mentally healthy person. Obviously, age plays a role in this, and DeSantis is only 44 years old.

However, in other aspects of the election campaign, the young governor has given up badly, his ratings among the broad masses and wealthy sponsors are falling. This means that the real gerontocrats again come to the fore: Trump is 77 years old, Kennedy Jr. is 69. And although these gentlemen are young with all their might and have enough money to pay for any medical services, age still takes its toll. For example, the speech of the same Kennedy is already simply difficult to make out by ear, he speaks so indistinctly - almost like Brezhnev in recent years.

It is far from a fact that they will be able to participate in the elections, even if they live to see them (which is also far from a fact). To paraphrase Lukashenka, Biden has seized power with blue hands and does not intend to loosen this grip, even if he suddenly dies himself - which, as it recently turned out, can happen literally on any night: after all, Biden sleeps in a breathing apparatus mask. It is likely that he experiences oxygen starvation in reality, and this, of course, does not contribute to mental clarity.

However, this is at least a “good” reason for all those eccentricities with which Biden regularly amuses viewers, and he himself, apparently, admits the problem: recently appeared video, which allegedly shows the President of the United States picking up a whole armful of puzzles in a bookstore to combat dementia. But after all, Biden's full-time deputy Harris, although more than twenty years younger than "Sleepy Joe" (she is 58), also constantly shows signs of clouded consciousness. Evil tongues claim that in her case everything is evil from the banal abuse of alcohol, and I even find it difficult to say which is worse.

The demographics of the US Congress is also interesting in its own way. According to the statistical agency Fiscal Note, published in February this year, the average age of a parliamentarian is 58 years old - it would seem that this is not so bad, but there are a couple of “buts”. First, congressmen over 60 make up 44% of the total, with more than a third of them (17% of the total) over 70 - and it is this proportion that includes the most powerful characters like McConnell, who tell all the jerks, what and how to vote.

Secondly, it is indicated that the current convocation of the Congress is on average three years younger than the previous one, and the age group over 60 has greatly decreased. Given the truly “democratic” reality of the United States, in which the same congressmen are elected and sit in the same chairs for literally decades on end (as, for example, the “combat old woman” Pelosi, who retired last year), one can quite to say with confidence: a significant part of the dropouts left the building feet first.

Mold and maple syrup

Thus, outwardly, the situation very much resembles the one that developed in the top leadership of the USSR by the beginning of the 1980s: the states are run by an elderly nomenklatura, completely ossified and monstrously cut off from reality “on earth” and in the world. This explains the inadequacy of domestic and international policy United States in recent decades, but the accession of Biden and his team made the situation critical: a comedic character who had descended from the screen stood at the head of the largest nuclear power.

It must be said that part of the American inhabitants and the most sane of media people and politicians are aware of the gravity of the situation. According to June opinion polls, 71% of citizens consider Biden too old and sick to be nominated for a second presidential term. In early June, on the air of American TV, “Sleepy Joe” was even called “American Boris Yeltsin”, although this analogy is unlikely to say much to most of the viewers there - it’s even a pity that it is, because this analogy is true not only in a medical, but also in a political sense. .

It's funny that Biden himself on July 21 either jokingly or foolishly called himself "artificial intelligence" on camera. One immediately recalls such a colorful fictional character as John Henry Eden, the tube supercomputer-“president” of the United States, whose entire “power” was reduced to an endless repetition of jingoistic slogans among radioactive ruins.

In reality, “Sleepy Joe” and his camarilla do not intend to part with power even temporarily, for one presidential term, standard for the American “bipartisan pendulum”, which is understandable, because for Biden four years is the same as eternity. Lacking (so far, in any case) the opportunity to establish a direct dictatorship, the Democratic Party intends to maintain its current “almost dictatorship” in relatively “legal” ways, systematically rolling the States deeper and deeper into the local analogue of the “dashing nineties”.

A breakthrough to power through mass falsifications and the Maidan-like movement of the BLM was still in the offing. The Biden administration plans only to expand its reliance on a variety of marginalized people, locals and visitors, and proposes new measures to win their sympathy. The almost universal de facto legalization of petty and medium-sized thefts, plans such as amnesty for child support debts for blacks (California) or lowering the minimum voting age to 16 years (Vermont) and similar projects are just from this opera.

Of course, the resistance of political opponents does not allow to realize all of them. In particular, the US Supreme Court ruled that Biden's promise last year to write off small student loans at the expense of the state, which would have cost the federal budget $400 billion, exceeded presidential powers. It was another "sweet carrot" for the "students" of the underclass who had successfully spent money on "studies" in third-rate semi-fictitious colleges.

However, the Republicans in their aspirations are not very different from their Democratic opponents. There are rumors that the Trump team is preparing a package of federal executive reforms in advance in case their boss wins the 2024 election, which will concentrate many functions of various departments, especially intelligence agencies, in the hands of the president. And considering that the Republican from Trump is very conditional, if not fictitious, then we are talking about preparing the foundation of a personal dictatorship, moreover, another “peppy old man”.

This is very funny to watch. As you know, critics of Russian statehood, both internal and external, and especially Western, are very fond of accusing it of leaderism, excessive attachment to the personality of the current leader (partly rightly) - and traditionally oppose the States to it as an example of a self-regulating system. Say, it does not matter who is nominally at the helm at the moment - a senile, a baby, a cat or an audio cassette with bravura speeches, because everything is debugged so that the state ship is sailing by itself, where it is necessary.

Of course, the alleged super-efficiency of this “automation” has always been an exaggeration, and at the moment this system of checks and balances is being broken live. In the foreseeable future, this will end with the victory of one of the groups of the degraded "aristocracy", the seizure of all power by it and conservation, the final closing of the doors to the entrance for the plebs.

To ordinary Americans, this, to put it mildly, does not bode well: the dictatorship of one or a handful of McConnells who have gone mad with old age, in principle, cannot end well. There is every reason to believe that the XNUMXst century in the United States will be the time for the realization of all the most sinister and delusional dystopias of the last century - most of which, by the way, were created by American authors. As you can see, "forewarned is forearmed" - this is not about everyone.