C’mon Man

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Joe Biden is senile. I don’t feel the need to qualify that any further. It is obvious to anyone with eyes and ears - and who is honest with themselves - that sleepy Joe is suffering from relatively severe cognitive decline. Only the most rabid and partisan of Democrat shills could attempt to argue otherwise. I’m not going to list the gaffes and embarrassments that have plagued the last few years of Biden’s career, both because there are far too many, and also because you’ve seen them. We’ve all seen them.

Instead, let’s take a trip down memory lane, and have a look at various leaders throughout history who lost their marbles.

It is tempting to begin with one of the Roman emperors whom history has, at various periods, decided were insane. The likes of Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Commodus, Elagabalus... The problem with diagnosing mental health issues deep in the past, when the surviving accounts are not extant and cannot be entirely relied upon, is that it very quickly becomes a matter of opinion. For example, historian Mary Beard argues that Caligula was not insane, but merely the victim of posthumous character assassination. This does not ring true, to my mind. Reading Suetonius’s account of Caligula’s reign, even if we were to be as generous as possible to the memory of Caligula, it is evident to me that he had some kind of clinical, chemical imbalance in his mind.

Nero is another good example of this problem. Was he actually suffering from some form of diagnosable mania, or was he simply a sadistic pervert? It is up to you to decide. The same applies to Domitian and Commodus. Elagabalus, there seems very little doubt, was a complete and utter basket-case; sometimes we are left with no other conclusion to draw.

Skipping ahead to the medieval period, Charles VI of France, Charles the Mad, had so many bats in his belfry that he thought himself made of glass, and that the merest knock might shatter him into a thousand pieces. This psychosis seems to have worked its way into the English royal line, through Catherine of Valois and her son with Henry V. That son, Henry VI, was probably the craziest monarch England ever had to endure. In adult life, he would experience bouts of selective mutism and would become entirely unresponsive to outside stimulus for long periods of times, months and months on end. A perilous situation for any monarch. In the end, this unfortunate affliction cost him his crown and his life.

The other main contender for most mad king of England must surely go to George III. Still debated to this day exactly what physical or mental malady he was suffering from, there is no doubt that he did indeed suffer several mental breakdowns. Anyone who has seen Nigel Hawthorne’s 1994 classic The Madness of King George will be well aware. A sad and dangerous set of circumstances.

There are plenty of other examples to be found, if one were so inclined. The eighteenth-century tzarina Anna Romanov has been accused of senility. A stronger argument can be made for her descendant, tzar Paul I. King Ludwig II of Bavaria - his life was marred by undeniable mental health issues; almost certainly schizophrenia and later dementia. Otto of Bavaria also found himself in a very similar boat.

There are of course a whole spectrum of potential mental health obstacles which any given individual might happen to suffer from, ranging from full-blown violent psychopaths to merely a spot of mild dementia. With this in mind, perhaps the most salient comparison with Joe Biden’s cognitive decline is that of Ronald Reagan.

Anyone old enough to remember will recall that Reagan’s Alzheimer’s disease was in full swing by the time he left office at the end of his second term. At first, his verbal goofs and gaffes were a subject of comedy and slight ridicule. Soon enough the funny side had been left behind. There isn’t anything particularly funny about a president of the United States - with the ability to launch nuclear weapons - who doesn’t have complete control of his faculties.

So Biden’s clear decline should not really be the subject of comical cheap shots. Too much is on the line. The stakes are absurdly, stupidly high. It is a stark and alarming indictment of the US political system that he was able to get anywhere near the presidency in the first place. Even more alarming is the almost blanket denial of his mental difficulties from the corporate press. What a disingenuous and dangerous slippery slope we’ve found ourselves on… I mean, c’mon man.