There was another time in U.S. history when a president was incapable of serving.  His name was Woodrow Wilson, and he had had a stroke, a debilitating one.  He never recovered.  For about 18 months, the nation was without a president.  World War I was over, and the country was on the cusp of the Roaring 20s, so perhaps having a leader wasn’t as imperative.    

Politico remembered Wilson’s October 1919 stroke in this October 2019 article. 

For a time, it was one of greatest cover-ups in the annals of the American presidency. (Many more years would pass before ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, which specifies the procedures to be followed in the event of a presidential disability.) Edith [Wilson, the First Lady] would regularly review pending legislation and executive documents -- becoming, according to some historians, the de facto acting president. [Italics added]

Seem familiar?  It should. 

A little more than a century later, history is repeating itself -- sort of.  President Joe Biden is functionally incapable of discharging his duties. Robotically signing executive orders doesn’t count. In 1919, the stroke that waylaid Wilson was covered up.  Wilson wasn’t paraded before the public.  Then, a measure of decorum was maintained in deference to citizens’ sensibilities.  (Wilson rode with his successor, Warren G. Harding, to Harding’s inaugural, but didn’t stay.)      

Not so with Biden. The 46^th president is trotted out before cameras often enough.  Almost inevitably, some aspect of his meager performances proves his dysfunction.  He fluffs lines, forgets, wanders off message, and, last Friday, stumbled so badly up the stairs to Air Force One that he was within an inch of serious injury.   

Yet, however obvious Biden’s fumbles and stumbles, his performances are gaslighted by administration flaks and the mainstream media.  Nothing to see, so move on.  The establishment damn well knows better, and should have the nation’s welfare at heart, but plays along.  Congressional Democrats play along, while congressional Republicans (many, not all) acquiesce.  Pelosi and Schumer are full conspirators. McConnell plays dumb.  Kevin McCarthy is mum. 

Biden was a functionally incapable candidate last year, of course. Voters knew it.  Kids, cats, and dogs knew it.  But Democrats were unfazed.  Joe was a longtime familiar face.  Irascible, cheatin’, influence-peddlin’ old Joe.  He was kinda centrist, kinda liberal.  Voters weren’t threatened by him, so party powerbrokers settled on him from a woeful field of Democrat presidential contenders. 

Biden’s decline didn’t matter.  Democrats had aces up their sleeves.  Why labor much to dupe Americans about Biden’s fitness?  A little gaslighting was plenty.  Election chicanery in five battleground states would fix the results.  The fixes worked. 

The Biden formula hasn’t changed since his inauguration.  A pinch of gaslighting, a pound of audacity, and another pound of flagrant disregard for the people’s will remains the recipe.  The agenda is all that matters, and the cabal -- comprised of Democrats, leftists, and plutocrats, chiefly -- are driving it hard.  They aim to cement Democrat control of politics, embed aspects of authoritarianism, and impose leftist policies on Americans.          

But disaster is in the making.  The cabal-manufactured border crisis and its drive to end America’s energy independence are “destroying our country,” asserts our former -- and perhaps future -- president Donald J. Trump.  But open borders and ending energy independence are merely opening salvos in the cabal’s go at “transforming” America. 

We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.  H.R. 1 (institutionalizing elections fraud), backdooring the Green New Deal, trillions in profligate spending, packing SCOTUS, gun control, and statehood for D.C. are in the offing.  Democrats aim to muscle through these terrible initiatives.    

The big question is, can the people thwart the cabal’s designs?  Can America avoid an outright debacle?  Can grassroots patriots, courts, red states, alternative conservative media, clashes of interests, and the general institutional drag built into the Constitution slam the brakes on Democrats’ power grab and lurch leftward?

Will GOP-driven election reform in key states be enacted, thereby providing fairer playing fields for the 2022 midterm congressional elections, which are necessary to install a GOP House majority, at least?

A GOP House -- preferably a Republican Congress -- holds the power of the purse.  Depriving the Biden administration of funds would tamp down the cabal’s ability to govern by fiat (executive order). 

Now until January 2025, the game is to throw as many wrenches into the Democrats’ machine as possible… grind it to a halt.  Gridlock never looked so good. 

Yet, accomplishing gridlock won’t solve all the problems that the cabal is making.    

There are matters domestic, and then there are matters foreign.  The Constitution grants presidents significant leeway in conducting foreign affairs and national security.  A president in charge isn’t a luxury. 

The nation’s enemies -- with plenty of help from the Biden administration -- perceive weakness.  Biden, frail and practically checked out, is regarded as an open invitation to China, Russia, and Iran to push for advantages. 

The administration’s paper-tiger approach to China -- secretary of state Tony Blinken had his head handed to him last week by PRC representatives Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi -- only emboldens Xi Jinping. 

Publicly moralizing about the Uighurs and Hong Kongers, and foot-stomping about Taiwan, cyberattacks and violations of “rules-based order,” means little to Xi and his cronies.  Xi is a tyrant; power is his language.  The pushback that Blinken and the U.S. contingent received from Xi’s envoys was an unhesitating show of contempt.  That’s a harbinger and should worry Americans.  In the days ahead, how will Xi test U.S. resolve?          

Not only that, the real bone of contention with the PRC concerns the South and East China Seas -- international waters and the airspace above -- which the Chinese are attempting to seize.  Xi controlling those seas has enormous economic and national security implications for the U.S. (and other nations, most directly those in Asia Pacific). 

Countering China means not only continuing the revitalization of our armed forces begun by President Trump, but projecting that might routinely into those disputed waters.  Actions, not words, will command Xi’s attention and compel caution.   

Resuming appeasement of Iran signals the Biden administration’s unseriousness in dealing with a sworn enemy of the U.S.  Iran is a habitual violator of the international “rules-based order” so prized by the establishment.  Buying them off didn’t work for Obama and won’t work again. 

Paying tribute to the Iranians spells weakness to Xi and another bad player, Vladimir Putin.  But bluster, symbolism, and servility are what “progressives” trade in.  Hard actions, driven by clearly defined national self-interest, aren’t much factored. 

Speaking of Putin, he recalled Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. last week.  Biden, in a softball interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, slammed Putin as a “killer.” 

Biden’s mouthiness can’t entirely be attributed to his senility.  Biden, in fitter days, was prone to strut and bully.  Yet with Biden’s mind misfiring, his restraint is going, too.  Remember Biden’s outbursts during the elections? 

About being called a killer, Putin, in a well-aimed jab at Biden, said, “It takes one to know one,” and promptly challenged Biden to a debate.  Wiley Vlad is very predatory.  

America effectively has no president.  It has a cabal running things from the White House.  It has a very vindictive, narrowly ideological president-in-training, Kamala Harris, who, when she assumes the presidency well before January 2025 offers no remedies but more trouble. 

Backlashes are building to the folly unfolding at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  This misbegotten administration needs to be hamstrung.  The nation’s safety, prosperity, and liberty are on the line.

J. Robert Smith can be found on Parler @JRobertSmith and at Gab, again @JRobertSmith.  He also blogs at Flyover.        

Image: Gage Skidmore