Ronald Reagan had gaffs. Everyone does. Not long after 1989 came and Reagan finished his term, his wife Nancy withdrew him from the spotlight — and with good reason.
Five years later, it was publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and lived another ten years. Here’s a quick news report on that Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Here’s an interview with their son Michael discussing the fact that Reagan did not suffer from dementia while in office.
Here Saturday Night Live in or around 1987 makes fun of Ronald Reagan as the sharpest and most endurant member of his inner circle. It is quite the complimentary insult.
Whether you like Ronald Reagan as a President, or dislike Ronald Reagan, I don’t care, for that is irrelevant in the context of what I am about to say. I am neutral about the guy, having never dug down into his policies. That does not stop me from complimenting where deserved. Something I like about his wife, Nancy Reagan, is this: He was not treated as her chance for a craven power grab.
It’s insane that we live in a time in which that is even a compliment that needs to be made. Yes, I am literally complimenting his wife for not treating her relationship with her husband as a craven power grab.
These two Hollywood actors (Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan) remained active, but largely disappeared from the spotlight after Reagan’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994. The photo above is a more common memory than the non-existent images of him drooling out his food or him stumbling incoherently.
I don’t know if Bob Dole should have saluted the casket of George H.W. Bush, but that’s a very different kind of matter. Dole too had withdrawn from the spotlight, emerging to pay respect to a friend before returning to his time out of the spotlight. He was not in a position of influence or in the spotlight each day. I will focus instead on two examples of considerably unwell men who are being used by those around them and are not being treated with the non-permissive nature that love sometimes requires.
Joe Biden is in decline and was in decline before the nomination was stolen from Bernie Sander and given to Biden. Biden was kept in his basement and largely kept off of the campaign trail until the decision to choose a President was stolen from the American people and Biden was installed.
To watch the man reveals somebody in a state of considerable cognitive decline. He was that way before the 2020 primaries began, he was that way when the 2020 elections took place, and he was that way when he was illegitimately installed. His illegitimacy and his role as interloper in our political process is a point that cannot be overstated, but that is not the focus of what I seek to illustrate.
Biden is not in a role that anyone who loved the man can put him in.
His state of decline points to him having no genuine loving figure around him who sees him as anything but a way to get ahead in life. That matter of his presidency will be dealt with in time and history will not remember his illegitimate presidency or his CCP-co-opted crime family in a favorable light. There are others in a similar situation, clearly surrounded by those unwilling to be lovingly non-permissive of the harmful behavior they see.
Which brings me to John Fetterman.
John Fetterman should not be running for office. Though I had seen a number of embarrassing video clips from his campaign, I did not realize how awful Fetterman’s condition was until I watched the entire hour of the Pennsylvania Senate debate. I strongly recommend it as the worst hour of programming I have seen in months. Until you watch the entire debate in context, you cannot truly appreciate the lie being told about the wellness of Fetterman.
In the debate, Oz was not held to account for much in the debate; Fetterman was a total joke of a debate opponent. He should not be speaking before an audience right now. The idea that Fetterman was the nominee that was going to allow the people of Pennsylvania to have a vigorously fought campaign between two candidates is preposterous. Pennsylvania has a few dozen other vetted Democrats that could have stepped into that role.
The decision was made, though, to ride the stroke patient through to Election Day and to make his wife the Senator. Fetterman is being used, not being loved.
That’s awful.
There is something amiss in our culture that such a thing is taking place. And anyone who stands against this abuse of a handicapped person is smeared with the pejorative “ableist.” The guy needs rehab and rehabilitation, instead of being paraded around as the fundraiser for the national Democrat party and used by his wife for future career opportunities.
It is a craven pursuit of power by those around them — both Biden and Fetterman. Something is very wrong with that picture.
Every person in power has those around him cravenly pursuing power. There is nothing unusual there. That is normal in politics. Let me point to something however that has not always been normal on the United States. Joe Biden and Fetterman seem to not have loved ones willing to pull them back from public life. That is what is so unusual about both situations.
These men are in such well-placed political environments, yet they have socially fallen through the cracks.
I can walk into the home of any laid-off, down on his luck, union worker on the south side of Chicago and find more genuine love in that home on the toughest of days than these two men appear to have in their lives. What a sad testament that is.
They are the epitome of power and influence in our culture, yet men like Biden and Fetterman appear to have so little of what matters in life.
I am sure there will be much more good in life for both of them. I wish the very best for them both. Though I may hold different political views, I harbor no hatred or animosity for these men. There will be amazing ways they each can contribute. But what is happening now is wrong. Neither of these men should be getting placed in the roles that they are in.
In such a moment, when there is no one to turn to, a man can at least have his wife to pull him back.
Gisele Fetterman appears focussed on her future. Jill Biden appears focussed on her future. The husbands look like stepping stones rather than someone to be loved and cared for as a spouse.
“It’s complicated,” you may say. “Marriages are complicated,” you may say, “We don’t know what was spoken about behind closed doors.” Well, I wish it were more complicated. I wish these were isolated examples. Americans have lost touch with what decency looks like. This can be no surprise, since you and I both can come up with dozens of worse ways that vast portions of the public are treated, ways that would have titillated Mengele. A cognitively impaired imposter President and a cognitively impaired Senate candidate are hardly the worst of this era, but they are indicative of the lost common sense and lost decency that sage voices of another era said was a lot easier to lose than we thought.
We lost it.
I do not know what will happen electorally or legally with either Fetterman or Biden. They may both one day even win legitimate elections. But their presence in the races reveals a certain comfort in our culture around manipulating those who most deserve a loving person telling them “No!”
And I call on you, in such a time of decay and dismay to be the voice of reason, to be the voice of decency, to be the voice of common sense to those around you. You cannot control every situation. You cannot control others, but you can be someone always doing his or her best to speak truth and decency into the world around you.
I ask that of you.
You may not change the world overnight doing that, but by being a truth teller as you walk through the day, you will change the world as you know it. You can bring sanity to the world as you know it.
The world is so badly in need of brave people like you being willing to do exactly that.
Thank you for that dear warrior.
Allan Stevo is the bestselling author of “Face Masks Hurt Kids” and “Face Masks In One Lesson.” He is the Executive Director of My Body, My Choice, a California-based health freedom organization.
Allen, I am a fan and I distribute your posts every time there is one, but I have to say something about your views of some politicians that you do not seem to know. It looks like you are a Republican v Democrat, and this is not the reality of our actual problem in this country. The two-party system is just a duopoly where you have a choice between Tweedle de and Tweddle Dum in other words the crook in this party or the crook in the other when in reality you have no real choice at all. It would take a book to explain the known history of Regan and his wife, who was a wealthy girl turned actor, and Her husband an actor turned into an actor acting as a President. I suggest reading the book by Robert Ingraham, The Modern Anglo-Dutch Empire: Its origins, evolution, and anti-human outlook and find the real history of the American system that eventually brings us a Regan, Bush or a Clinton. If you are open to a change of your world view that most people could not bear, read it and be as informed about reality, and as passionate as you are about the mass murder being carried out by the same monsters in this book. No more Democrats v Republicans as this is just a construct by the real powers that run the world. Jack.
Amen 👍Alan, I admired Ronald for his American values as I became a naturalized citizen at end of his term & registered as Republican! The amazing thing was that he was a Democrat during his Hollywood acting years (guess that shouldn’t surprise) but I think he would be regarded as one of the Greatest American Presidents of 20th century, certainly not perfect but very well meaning & effective which is totally lacking in politicians especially nowadays!
Same with Kennedy that averted a Cuban crisis fought Deep State shenanigans & was also eager to get rid of the Fed, all issues that got him assassinated! Then you have Trump that you articulated very well in an earlier op-ed piece of giving him high marks his first 3 years and a fail for his Covid response mandates & claiming his ‘fast track’ jabs 🤮 are safe and effective! (Not)