Unfinished Business

My anger at the Mitch McConnell situation has surprised me. There are many more serious issues to be upset about and to take action on. So why is this farce making me so upset? Part of it is because I’m being forced to think that there is, indeed, some type of conspiracy, and I’m not prone to conspiracies. My default belief is that the political machine is composed of more bad actors than good, so I dismiss most conspiracies as a distraction tactic. The other element of my rage is that I’m reminded of the ubiquitous type of leader that I often encountered in my former career in higher ed. There was no shortage of older men who were past their prime, having reached their “level of respective incompetence,” aka the Peter principle. These men were so self-absorbed that they were blind to the fact that they were out of touch on many levels. For example, when they were pulled aside and told that asking their administrative assistant to pick up their dry cleaning, schedule their colonoscopy, or (no lie), wear a bell to be easy to find, they took offense. Without fail, they would play the “different generation” card, where they would inanely plead that this was how it was done “back in the day,” and they just couldn’t keep up with all this silly feminist stuff.

Does this sound familiar? Why, yes, it does. McConnell, who I doubt actually wrote his statement, claimed, “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older” in an attempt to justify keeping the status of his health a secret. Elected officials relinquish a great deal of privacy, and the status of their health is one of them, since their role requires being present to conduct business for those who put them in office. But politicians of his generation seem to think that their job is for life, and doing anything unethical to ensure staying in their role becomes rationalized. This individual scenario becomes the group scenario; a political party will engage in a multitude of unethical behavior to justify keeping the power.

Who knows what McConnell’s wishes are when it comes to end of life decisions. Hopefully he has a living will, and hopefully it is being carried out in an ethical fashion. Maybe he chose for life saving methods to be extended to life support, even if brain dead. But this means he technically is no longer in a conscious state that allows him to deal with his “unfinished business” on the Senate floor. Instead, he is being used as a pawn for a political party’s cause. Surely someone who loves him is upset by how he is being used. Surely someone who loves him finds the entire scenario offensive and vulgar. I’m sure this theoretical person is being told that the cause is greater than the person, and that holding off on releasing the truth will help the party. What those supporting the likely lie are losing sight of is that we, the thinking public, are not so easily deceived. All of this could be solved by a brief press conference or live call to Governor Beshear. After all, McConnell looks very able to engage in a phone call based on the photo released. He’s not hooked up to machines or incapacitated in any way. The fact that this call is most likely not going to happen is apparent to many. Would McConnell be pleased being used in this way for his party? I think it’s quite possible that he would be fine with it. He liked to have things both ways, such as when he blamed the president for the Jan 6 riot, but then failed to hold him accountable.

I’m reminded of the provost who once told me that he could receive emails but not send them. I advised him to call the IT department. It was only later that I realized he refused to become technically proficient while requiring others to be, and to offset his refusal to learn, he had his assistant purchase a Dictaphone to type up his emails and send them. This same man of a certain generation continued to call me when he left the college, sharing proposals that he thought I should implement as the strategic planner, although the data I had at my fingertips showed that his proposals were out of touch. He inaccurately thought I was a member of his party, and that as a woman with limited power that I would be happy to further his futile agenda. He was wrong. The point is that many men of that generation simply refuse to learn. They are already the walking dead. They have no outside interests or hobbies. Their ego, which is tied to their perceived power that is wrapped up in their job, defines them.

All of us will leave the realm of the living with some type of unfinished business. The question becomes how much collateral damage we are willing to leave in our wake. The McConnell situation is a symptom of a much larger and multifaceted problem, and his unfinished business will become ours.