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The Hubris of Power on the Left and How it Helped Create the Current Chaos [1]
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Date: 2025-02-03
We can pretty much see that right-wing power is corrupt, dishonest, and cowardly as the GOP Congress fawns over and openly flirts with dictatorial leadership.
Most honest people have come to accept this.
But there were flaws in the opposition leadership that were clear and enabled our current situation.
One of the most most obvious was the actions of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg. She could have stepped aside and made way for a younger more liberal person to take her place as her disease progressed. Her cancer was advanced, and she was undergoing regular cancer treatment and had to know the danger to the rest of us of her dying. She would be replaced by right-wing ideologue on the Supreme Court.
But her vanity blinded her and would not let her give up power, Ginsburg had health scares earlier undergoing surgery for colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lung cancer. In July 2020, she was undergoing chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer on her liver which was supposedly ‘yielding positive results.’ Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, from metastatic pancreatic cancer.
She could have announced her leaving the Supreme Court at any time during her treatment but refused. The downstream effects for liberals were catastrophic as the conservative Amy Coney Barrett was chosen by the President to replace her.
And while Barrett has shown some independence from complete right-wing control, this was a decisive move in turning the court into a right-wing rubber stamp for conservative causes and opinions.
And the situation illustrates the blindness and lack of foresight that it creates as very sick people think they are going to live forever. This vanity leaves those left behind moving towards a right-wing inspired dystopia.
Then we have President Biden and his cabinet. His disastrous debate performance could not have been better for the right-wing if it had been staged by a Hollywood script writer and actor.
There were credible claims that Biden’s aids were protecting the President and limiting his interactions with others so his degree of frailness could remain unseen. Fox News, not a source known for its honesty or independence, described him as “bumbling, fumbling Joe Biden,”
His physical infirmity was obvious as people watched him walk on the White House grounds or across the stage with world leaders. He looked like he might lose his balance at any minute and fall.
But Biden refused to step down until it was too late. He left Kamala Harris with a very short window of time to introduce herself to the American people and the election was lost.
Vanity and hubris says, “only I can do this job” or “only I can win this election.” It impairs judgment and rational analysis. And being in power for extended periods only increases such vanity, making it a major factor in the desire to maintain such power regardless of its danger to others.
Here, we see repeated instances of situations common in Greek Tragedy where a fatal flaw leads to the demise or downfall of heroes and powerful leaders throughout history. In ancient Greek myth, Achilles had one place, his heel, where he was venerable which led to his death. Most heroes and powerful leaders have had similar vulnerabilities since then and their downfall has unfortunately also been a downfall for the rest of us.
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