Adolph von Menzel:
Studies in the Insane Asylum (1844)

"We never know how to respond congruently."

Ordinarily, politics entails differences of opinion. It's different than this in the case of our current incumbent. There, realities seem to conflict. He and his minions deny the existence of verifiable conditions and assert the existence of clearly delusional ones. He exercises uninformed power. He primarily exercises non-existent powers. He proclaims stuff that could never be objectively excused as in any way related to truths. He holds convictions that only the more deluded conspiracy theorists ever seem convinced, then threatens and even exercises retribution against anyone disagreeing or, to use his words, "defying" him. Since when has a difference of opinion warranted such a response in this country that first championed freedom of speech, religion, and political conviction? Disagreement doesn't constitute a crime here. We have long revered dissent as one of the purest forms of patriotism, indeed nothing deserving any form of political retribution.

We teeter on an edge more perilous than mere politics. Our leader exhibits many, many markers of suffering from Insanity—not merely some understandable forgetfulness and more mobile than a typical case of Alzheimer's. His impairments appear whenever he opens his yap or posts a "truth." The most incredible crap spews out. He too quickly loses continuity and carries the conversation he started in baffling directions. He seems incapable of staying on topic and rarely speaks on any discernible topic at all. He might declare some announcement then forget or neglect to mention whatever he insisted he was present to proclaim. He abruptly shifts and often seems to drift away from an engagement. He displays flashes of genuine anger without anyone seeing them coming. Minor offenses, even no offenses, frequently receive grossly disproportionate responses with frightening side statements thrown in. It's clear to anyone anywhere near that he's often somewhere else.

I agree with Woody Allen's old insight that while there's probably no such thing as an objective reality, it's still the only reliable place to find a decent steak dinner. Reality works precisely like that. It's the water we swim in, so we're unlikely to notice anything. When it disappears or shifts on us, we might see then. When someone close starts exhibiting these foibles, we tend to compensate, placate, and explain away, if only because we rarely feel we can afford to fully acknowledge the changes. They personify the unthinkable and unspeakable. We hold our water then. When a leader goes coo-coo, the followers often go coo-coo, too.

I remember back when I signed on to work with a boutique Silicon Valley consulting firm, its president had something of a nervous breakdown. He'd survived a bout of Hodgkin's a year or so before I arrived and was still under surveillance. He seemed physically okay, but his mind became increasingly intermittent. He had always been acknowledged as brilliant, so we easily explained away his first few discontinuities. He became reckless, loose with his investments, and eventually managed to lose a shitload of money he didn’t have, shorting some biotech stock. His advice, which had once been impeccable, became unreliable, then alarming. He began smoking, though he'd never had that habit before. He'd get in trouble for smoking in the restroom in our non-smoking building.

Partner meetings during that time were studies in incongruity. He was the charismatic leader and also increasingly unreliable. It felt crazy-making just to come to work. We each responded as we did, some with elegance but more with sloppiness, for we'd all had prior experience with insanity. We'd seen the movie before, whether it was Grandma's decline or some authoritarian school official. We were all confused by the experience, and I can report that none of us felt very proud of how we responded. Those of us who tried to excuse or collaborate, to attempt generous interpretations, were ultimately no better off than those who just blew off the tirades. We were all dependent upon his perspective, and his perspective turned to shit. It hardly gets any worse than this: to look to a leader and find that leader more lost than the least of his designated followers. His Hodgkin's ultimately came back, and I volunteered to fire him, a task I shudder at when looking back upon. I spoke with the founder's widow and explained the situation. She, who owned the company, permitted me to excuse him. He didn't go quietly. If insanity hadn't so severely diminished him by then, I would say that I fired my friend. He was permanently gone a few weeks later.

Such status quos quietly but inexorably become intolerables. Roman history seems chock full of examples of insane tyrants receiving their comeupances. The Constitutional amendment governing the replacement of an incumbent for medical reasons has never been invoked other than temporarily during scheduled medical procedures. This time will probably be different, for no chief executive has yet been formally excused without their agreement. This will be almost as egregious as a necessary act. It will be essential to preserve what the incumbent's primary responsibility was to maintain. He's proved he can't fulfill that most sacred of civic obligations. My better angels insist that none of this is anything like his fault. I insist he's insane without an ounce of Lincoln's malice in my heart or brain. Any day insanity governs our presidency is a terribly sad day for democracy. We see how communicable craziness tends to be when it infects a duly elected leader. We see how compromised our values become when tromped on by an emotional infant in an aging, oversized body, and a terminally compromised brain. We watch a man undermine global order before flying off, at public expense, to play golf and lie about winning a meaningless tournament over the following weekend, to return to observe the carnage before doubling down. We know Insanity when we see it. We never know how to congruently respond.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

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