An open letter.
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| Image by Marc Hatot from Pixabay |
This is a weekly column consisting of letters to my perspicacious progeny. I write letters to my grandkids — the Stickies — eventual selves to advise them and haunt them after they've become grups and/or I'm deleted.
Trigger Warning: This column is rated SSC — Sexy Seasoned Citizens — Perusal by kids, callowyutes, or grups may result in a debilitating meltdown.
"Politics is the attempt to achieve power and prestige without merit."
-P.J. O'Rourke
Dear Uncle Joe & the Donald,
Gentlemen, many of your fellow Americans believe that one of you clearly suffers from age-related cognitive decline and that the other is a megalomaniac.
Never having met either of you, and since the closest I've come to medical training is driving by a highway exit sign for the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, far be it from me to judge.
However, I do know that the Donald (6/14/46) is barely young enough to be a Boomer and that Uncle Joe (11/20/42) is too old to be one.
I also know that regardless of the state of your physical and/or mental health, biologically speaking, like me, you're old. More importantly, you've both led unusually full lives compared to the average American H. sapien. It's time to get off the stage and give the kids a chance to show us what they can do.
You've both become the face of powerful, polarized factions within your respective parties and are both exploited by the purple press and armies of tireless algorithmites on duty in the social media platforms, both of whom serve the Outrage Industrial Complex.
Too many Citizens of the Republic have forgotten, or perhaps have never learned, that for a democratic republic to thrive and survive, constant compromise combined with a willingness to live and let live is required.
For the sake of the Republic, if I were the benevolent, primarily ceremonial monarch that I should be, I would order that you two...
{Ahem.}
For the sake of the Republic, the two of you should announce, together, that you've both decided that neither of you is running for president in '24, that given the current state of overheated political polarization, you've decided to step aside.
That you hope this will set an example for both major parties to offer the nation younger nominees who publicly commit to seeking a compromise on the issues that divide us.
That it's time, across the board, for Boomer pols to get off the stage, and for Americans of all ages to step out of their comfort zones and readopt the attitude of the country that put a man on the moon in less than a decade when we worked together.
That it's time to reconsider what's happened since: embracing self-centeredness and safetyism while simultaneously culturally shooting ourselves in the foot on a daily basis.
Perhaps you could even suggest all politicians over the age of 70 currently serving at all levels of government from dog catcher to senator not run in '24, and that going forward, this becomes a tradition, and if necessary, a law.
And speaking of mandatory retirement, how about suggesting that the members of the legal deep state, the millions of unelected bureaucrats we're at the mercy of, should also retire by age 70. We could be spared future Anthony Fauccis (82), who until his recent retirement, was better paid than the presidents he worked for.
{Hey, are you aware that his wife, Christine Grady (71) is the chief of "the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center?" and is paid $234,284 per year?}
Yeah, I am, Dana. But to be fair I must mention that she and her husband worked for different agencies of the NIH before he retired.
Unfortunately, I suspect that even such a noble and virtuous gesture on your part, although it would likely result in the historians of the future treating both of you gentlepersons more kindly, I'm not holding my breath.
And even if my fantasy somehow came true, it would be unlikely to make more than a small splash in Lake Zeitgeist given the current state of things. The purple press/social media would both move on as soon as the partner of the love child of a cousin of someone famous for being famous (and who once dated Madonna) died from an overdose of _______.
Perhaps the politicians and "influencers" who are members of the three generations born since the Boomers arrived could form the Neodemocratic and Neorepublican parties and take out the donkey and the elephant in the room with a tranquilizer dart.
I'd suggest they begin repairing the Republic by first freezing the national credit card and ending inflation by living within the nation's means so they don't spend their whole lives paying off their forefather's foreperson's bills.
Poppa loves you,
Have an OK day
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