The current American system of government is incoherent without assuming great capacities in the ultimate boss. But collusion between politicians and the media suppress the truth about incapacity in the White House. This problem existed long before Biden, and it will continue after he returns to Delaware for his final vacation.

by James Bovard

The Founding Fathers sought to create a government that would be under the law and under the Constitution. Since World War One, presidents have amassed far more arbitrary power to rule by decree. Every recent American commander-in-chief has expanded and exploited the dictatorial potential of the presidency. Yet, because elections continue to be regularly held, most Americans do not think of the nation’s chief executive as a despot.

For generations, American politicians spoke reverently of the Constitution as America’s highest law. In the 1800s, presidential candidates would compete by attesting their fidelity to the nation’s founding document. But in recent years, the Constitution has fallen into disrespect. The rule of law now means little more than the enforcement of the secret memos of the commander-in-chief.

Power has been concentrated in the White House in part because the friends of Leviathan favor policies that cannot survive the light of day or open debate in the halls of Congress. Pundits pretend the system remains on automatic pilot to serve the citizenry just like in the early days of the American republic. Advocates for centralized power have talked as if they were deluded by some political perversion of the mystic advice in the movie Field of Dreams: “Gather all the power, and the noble leader will come.”

Wild-eyed optimism about the character and competence of American presidents should have received far more ridicule, but what happens when the absurdities become too great to hide?

This has been a problem in the United States for most recent presidents, but the issue is most intense with the current chief executive.

Sleepy Joe’s rapid decline

President Biden seems increasingly distanced from the day-to-day duties of his office. In June at the Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado, Biden stumbled leaving the podium and hit the platform as hard as if he’d been dropped from a low-flying helicopter. It took multiple Secret Service agents to eventually get the president back on his feet.

Visiting Japan for a summit in May, Biden uncorked a 40-second utterly incoherent answer to a question that mystified even his biggest devotees. Some commentators speculated that the jet lag and time difference undermined the drugs that Biden routinely takes to spur apparent mental sharpness.

In a bizarre finish for a recent MSNBC puff piece appearance, Biden practically jumped out of his chair and shuffled off stage like a hungry geezer responding to the dinner bell at the nursing home.

Biden took off almost the entire month of August for vacation. His repose was interrupted by a brief visit to Maui, the scene of a horrific fire that had left hundreds dead and thousands homeless. Biden pirouetted in front of the audience and claimed a minor kitchen fire that occurred in his Delaware home a few decades earlier — in which he almost lost his cat, his 1967 Corvette, and his wife — was on par with the devastation suffered by Maui residents. Political leaders in Hawaii were covering up a vastly higher death toll than they admitted — and many if not most of the fatalities were due to profound government failures.

By the end of August, Biden “spent all or part of 382 of his presidency’s 957 days — or 40 percent — on personal overnight trips away from the White House, putting him on pace to become America’s most idle commander-in-chief,” the New York Post reported.

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