15 Comments
User's avatar
Lucius's avatar

I was genuinely surprised when they wheeled him back into the capitol. I thought for sure he was in a state of permanent rigor tortoise.

Tom Schaller's avatar

Rigor tortoise—that’s funny

Margaret Reis's avatar

The Senate should have rules ousting incapacitated members. GOP should stop their antics to hold on to seats when the senator is dragged in on wheelchair and looks half dead! Ridiculous!

Michael Wild's avatar

Why limit it to the Senate? Though granted a 6 year term makes it particularly necessary.

Lisa Z's avatar

There's a video clip going around of McConnell starting to vote "nay" with the Democrats and his staff intervening to make sure he changed his vote to "aye" with the Republicans. This is not acceptable. If it was wrong for Dianne Feinstein to cling to her job so her staff would still have jobs and the division of power would remain unchanged, then it's wrong for Mitch McConnell.

Catharine Farkas's avatar

I was going to say the same thing! Totally enabling. He voted NO, and then they told him to change to YES. He didn't appear to have a clue what was going on. Elder abuse at the very least...

Hannah's avatar

The more important question is why people vote for candidates that aren't fit for office. I can't tell from the one video I could open, I don't use X, how incapacitated he is. He looks like he's out of it. He already has a retirement plan, and benefits for life. Is there no one who can take him aside and convince him it's time. We should all be so lucky to have the kind of retirement our elected officials have.

Michael Wild's avatar

For goodness sake if a brick layer's physical fitness declines to the point that he or she can no longer perform the physically demanding duties of the trade this person deserves sympathy but has no business on a building site. There are many jobs such a person would be physically fit enough to perform but not be fit for of the construction industry.

I expect politicians (and for that matter judges) are involved in tasks that require above average mental capacity and abstract thinking. Surely there's no room for people of below average mental capacity (I would suggest merely average capacity) to be making decisions about legislation and its effects on society.

Dementia is a thing, and with increasing age we're going to get more and more of it. Sometimes it strikes early. It usually can't be diagnosed in the early stages (when you long past the stage of being fit for elected office) without a co-operating patient. Clearly we need age limits on elected politicians. Surely the experience of Presidents Biden and Trump alone show we need to make a move in this direction.

Nancy Sloop's avatar

I'll bet you're right that THIS Supreme Court would find any amendment with age limititations on public office unconstitutional, but should it involve a Democrat? They'd go for it in a skinny minute.

AMC (NC)'s avatar

He wasn't able to fasten his own seatbelt, or maybe I'm not up on protocol and all senators have someone do this for them.

Thomas Locatell's avatar

Hats off to the mortician, that's the most lifelike corpse I have ever seen.

Wren The Hen's avatar

I, too, argue for age limits, not term limits, meaning that you can’t run for Congress if you’d be X age by the time the next term is over, or some such. That said, I just can’t work up any enthusiasm for the whole business while the country is being looted and burned to the ground and every bag of groceries costs just this side of a hundred bucks.

SH's avatar

You lost me at

"It’s no coincidence that the trillions of dollars the US government spends on entitlements — all of Medicare, all but the disability portion of Social Security, the majority of Medicaid spending — skew heavily toward older Americans. Even if they’re spry and lucid, aging politicians represent the past more than the future."🤔👎

Sher''s avatar

He's another evil to the core scourge...just like Trump.

Justin Louis's avatar

"Bowing down to exert oneself to the utmost, giving one's all until death—they sincerely love the people and faithfully serve them to their very last breath. This is why they are so touching." This is classic Chinese government propaganda, which comes across as deeply ironic to ordinary people.