The lesson is about power and how people are reluctant to give up control and influence at the highest levels, even when it’s clearly for the greater good. That fine line between selfless and selfish.

Let me explain.

We Americans love our heroes and heroines.

We love them so much we’ll even create them when common sense tells us otherwise.

Good for the country?

When Ruth Bader Ginsberg was diagnosed with a terminal disease it was clear that her term as Supreme Court Justice would come to an untimely end. The big question was when? And how would that influence the future court?

We know how this story ends. We know she did not resign and held on until trump could appoint a justice.

This was not good for our country, in my opinion. In fact, it was destructive.

RBG broke many barriers. She was an excellent justice. But what she wasn’t? She wasn’t selfless. She couldn’t relinquish her status for the greater good. She was not the heroine that many want to make her. Not in my opinion.

I think she screwed the country by not resigning.

Yes, this flies in the face of her canonization. But it’s what happened.

Power gets a tight grip on big names, so much so that they lose their ability to act for the greater good.

Let’s get real

We’re seeing this possibility again with Justice Sotomayer. She travels with a medic.

That’s right. For whatever reason–maybe her diabetes, maybe complications from it or maybe something else. She is clearly sick enough to have to travel with medical assistance.

This troubles me.

The next election has always been iffy. It still is.

In my opinion, she should have resigned when there was time for President Biden to appoint another justice. Because it’s just too risky. We already see the damage done by the new justices.

But power is a jealous mistress.

Oh yes, I’ve seen people claim that calls for her resignation are ableism. I disagree. They are actually patriotic. They are realistic. They show an understanding of the political scene.

Another example comes to mind.

The hard choice

It’s been pretty obvious for some time now that President Biden is not up for another term. But this is something he’s been in denial about. So, to be honest, the media staged a coup. They pounded on the subject so long and in so many ways that there was no way he could resist them in the end. He gave up his candidacy.

But he did so at the very 11th hour. Very late in the game. Making it much more difficult for Vice President Harris to mount a full-fledged campaign.

That’s the thing about power. It can keep people in denial of reality.

They’re calling him a hero.

I don’t see it that way.

He hobbled her candidacy. But then, he also hobbled her vice-presidency. He gave her only the most dead-end issues so she was guaranteed to have no real accomplishments.

Was that a reflection of his love of power? Could be. Certainly his hanging on to his candidacy for so long reflected a reluctance to do what was right for the country.

I blame power.

It blinds people to reality.

Moving forward…

Me? I like to think I am a realist. I’m very definitely left of center, but I see no need to canonize people who are showing their weakness and their vulnerability to the allure of power. Who can not sacrifice that for the greater good. I see them clearly.

You may not agree with me, and that’s ok. It is, after all, my opinion.

I didn’t want this election cycle to pass without imploring you to not be so quick to confer sainthood on politicians. To see them clearly. To understand that allure of power and how it affects them.

Oh, and I’ll be seeing clearly. And voting straight blue.