The problem with having small people in big positions is that only their ego grows to fit the job. Somehow their capabilities – if they were ever there – just never seem to catch up.
During normal times, the permanent bureaucracy protects the incompetent leader from exposure, and thus the bureaucracy from accountability. A figurehead or mouthpiece is what most big city mayors and many blue state governors usually are, anyway. Their job description is simply to get through their term in office without messing anything up too badly, which would cause the existing political party to lose power at the next election.
"Too badly" means badly enough to cause an investigation by those outside the office that was involved in the blunder or caper. Think of such an investigation as an independent financial audit of a firm's accounting books, but with wider scope.
The COVID-19 pandemic scare has blown through all the usual political firewalls that keep incompetent yet personable people employed as leaders in government. Emergency declarations were the fairy wand and dust that brushed away the usual protective political firewalls. "Woohoo! I'm in charge! I can do anything I want! It's payback time!"
A person whose mind, as opposed to his ego, had grown into the job might say, "Oh, it's all on me. Do I have the backing of the legislature in what I am about to do? Maybe I'd better call the House speaker and the Senate president, just to find out where they stand."
That way, if you were to issue an order requiring COVID-19 infected patients to be sent from hospitals back into nursing homes, where they would reasonably be expected to infect other vulnerable residents, sending them into hospitals and cemeteries, you might receive some sage advice along the lines of, "What are you – out of your bleeping mind?"
But perhaps there was a reason you didn't ask for advice. What if you knew perfectly well what the likely result would be? What if your state was paid many extra thousands of Medicare dollars for every COVID patient sent to the hospital? What if you just wanted the money?
Perhaps all you wanted was for the death figures in your state to remain high enough to justify continuing the emergency … out through the election.
Maybe you desperately wanted statewide mail-in voting, where boxes of harvested ballots could be dropped into the mailbox, once your party operatives knew how many more votes they needed to win. Even if it is days or weeks after the election – we must count until we win!
Does that mean that nursing home patients did not die in vain? Or does it mean that political expediency resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly people in your state?
They would have died anyway. Perhaps it is too small of a distance in your mind between being governor and God.
What about mayors who failed to use the police and national guard to stop riots and looting in their cities? What if they ultimately marched with the protestErs, as in Portland, Oregon? What if they made no attempt to protect their citizens, businesses and property from harm and destruction by the mob? What if they can't separate their politics from their job? Are they protected by sovereign immunity?
"They can't prosecute me. I have sovereign immunity!" If that's you, then perhaps you should check into the stripping doctrine.
Feeling naked? Lots of angry citizens may not be able to take out their anger on the city or state, but they can sure take it out on you, personally. Too bad it was only your ego – and not your mind and heart – that grew into the job.
Maybe we don't value citizenship enough. Maybe we don't teach civics in schools anymore. Maybe we don't remember that freedom is never free. And maybe we have to remind our leaders at more frequent intervals that crimes against humanity always have to be punished.
craigemcmillan.com has the real story of Armageddon.
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