Yesterday Mitch McConnell froze up during a q and a session with the media, raising concerns about his health. ABC News. McConnell stopped mid sentence during the session and stared blankly, unblinking, for 20 seconds before being helped away by two other senators at the session. McConnell was able to recover and he returned to the podium and was able to answer several questions, sometimes with long answers. When questioned about the incident McConnell said he was "fine". McConnell is 81 and was briefly hospitalized after falling and getting a concussion last March.
Today Senator Dianne Feinstein stumbled during a vote for a Senate Appropriations Committee vote. NBC News. Instead of simply saying "aye" to confirm the vote she began a speech about why she supported the bill. Her colleagues quickly told her to "just say aye" and she did. Feinstein also accidently voted against a measure she is in favor in before quickly changing her vote. Feinstein is 90 and has serious questions about her health as she missed 91 votes while recovering for shingles.
My Comment:
To begin I want to say that I take no pleasure in seeing our leadership apparently succumb to age and infirmity. I am certainly no fan of Feinstein and my feelings towards McConnell aren't particularly warm but it's still sad to see anyone having these kinds of problems. Same when Biden has one of his senility moments, it's sad even though he's a terrible person and president.
Regardless, it seems like we should be having a discussion about why these people are in power in the first place. McConnell is 81 and Feinstein is 90. Biden is 80 as well. And none of them are healthy. Why are they still allowed to serve? Why isn't age a consideration when these folks are getting elected?
Party loyalty seems to be a big part of it. Both Feinstein and McConnell are powerful members of their respective parties and have accomplished a lot. McConnell especially is responsible for the recent victories in the Supreme Court. Both would be hard to take down and there is little evidence that their parties want them to step down.
McConnell is probably the healthiest of the three as this is one of the first incidents he had, but it was probably one of the more disturbing incidents. He really did look like he was out of it for a good 20 seconds. Feinstein and Biden have been having incidents like this for years now.
There is always the possibility of voting these people out but how realistic is that anyways? Very few people would be willing to primary these folks and even if they did they have the support of their parties. And though I think Biden will be voted out, his main opponent is Trump, who is 77 himself. To be fair, Trump is a lot more spry and "with it" than Biden is, clearly, but that could change fairly fast as he ages as well. Still, it's unlikely we will have a younger president any time soon.
Regardless, the whole thing reminds me of the last leadership of the Soviet Union. Between Khrushchev and Gorbachev the Union had three elderly dotards as premiers, Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko. Though the much younger Gorbachev attempted to right the ship, the damage these old leaders did eventually lead to the fall of the Union. It's impossible to not see the parallels between our current government and the later Soviet leaders...
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