Israel van Meckenem the Younger:
The Fight over the Trousers (c. 1495)

" … the patience of Job and the countenance of Greek statuary …"

Through his first foray into The Presidency, our impending incumbent proved incredibly, if intermittently, inept. Usually, his operation proved capable of producing run-of-the-mill cruelty and only managed anything more significant by accident. Many attempted initiatives got away from their initiators to take on their own lives, seemingly without meaningful external control. They proved the adage that a broken clock works twice each day, even though it's ordinarily so wrong as to be useless. Those of us opposed to those initiatives learned that we could usually rely upon that administration's inherent Ineptitude, which would have been humorous had it not also been occasionally so disastrous. It was as if the incumbent brought no executive experience into his role, for he seemed incapable of even the barest executive performance. He exhibited little strategic influence, frittering away his time on initiatives that could no more than temporarily annoy his opposition. His opposition would occasionally register outrage when something especially egregious occurred, but they primarily focused on building their coalition and expressing gratitude their opponent was so poorly resourced.

Before taking the oath of office that he will have no intention of upholding, he's been busying himself with selecting prospective cabinet members. He's chosen people who pose no threat to him since they seem even less experienced in directing strategic initiatives than he's ever been, which is saying something. They seem uniquely unqualified, representing a godsend to those opposing the incoming administration's agenda, whatever that might be. They were cautious about releasing no blueprint for what they hoped to accomplish except for that detailed schematic prepared by the Heritage Foundation, an operation spawned out of the old John Birch Society and the KKK, characterizing itself as a conservative "think tank," with heaviest emphasis on the tank part. Heritage profoundly influenced the so-called conservative resurgence over the last forty years. Their lasting heritage has been to keep unemployment high and wealth disparity broad. They've spawned dozens of deeply unpopular policies that have hobbled our prosperity, each of which eventually failed. The rest remain in the process of failing. Some of those will likely crumble under this administration's blesséd Ineptitude.

So, with a blueprint none of the nominated understand and an incumbent as inept as he ever was, they approach the Senate's nomination and approval process. The first week of that process saw two of the most prominent candidates' hearings postponed because the nominators hadn't finished the associated paperwork. This repeats the most notable pattern of their prior attempts at administration. Administration by those without aptitude or skill doesn't always produce peak performance. It results in much stopping and restarting again. The storylines get garbled. The purposes scrambled. The resulting hearings tend toward parody, with candidates and defenders still unprepared despite lengthy delays. Some will be approved anyway, but those will enter office distressed. Blessed, perhaps, by a spare minority, but also cursed after their base ineptness receives a full public airing. They will enter office as Senate-certified absolute idiots, and everyone will know it.

For most of them, this will prove to be the beginning of the end of their brief, if unproductive, government career. Most of the first batch of candidates won't last the first year, even though they were touted as the best and brightest when nominated. There's something about serving an inept chief executive that tends to bleed off onto everyone reporting to him. They will eventually be dismissed as absolute idiots, turncoats, failures, and severe disappointments. If our impending incumbent has proven adept at anything, he's shown to be a remarkably prescient predictor of impending future failure. His candidates never go on to perform distinguished service. They become tomorrow's far backbenchers or forgotten footnotes, complaining about something they might have resolved if they'd been the least bit skilled in what they agreed to fulfill. They became the authors of their own disappointment, blaming those damned Democrats for undermining everything. For their part, the Dems required no special powers to come out on top except the patience of Job and the countenance of Greek statuary so their opponents wouldn't notice milk spurting out their noses in glee as they so ineptly fulfilled their roles. This administration will probably produce an even higher percentage of convicted felons than Ronald Reagan's administration. That will really be accomplishing something!

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

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