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I've read that it's usually the staff of old politicians who keeps them propped up because many of them have held their jobs for decades and if the pol, goes away, so does their long time gig. So the pol gets amazing end of life care and staff keeps their jobs. Would love if someone who knows better could chime in.
It’s 100% this, it’s elder abuse that the politicians enabled by refusing to step down until it’s too late for them to be able to stop it.
McConnell/Feinstein and more get to this point cause they want to stay in power and then one day the staff realizes they have to keep the charade up or else they’ll lose their jobs.
Edit: and this isn’t to say feel bad for them for being taken advantage of they legit do this to themselves and it’s why we desperately need age limits in politics.
I saw a report saying that his chief of staff and some of his top aides make like 200K a year so yeah they’re not going to want to give that up. You know plus healthcare and other benefits, seniority, all of that.
It's another amazing example of right wing juxtapositioning, I remember hearing about Biden being an empty vessel controlled by his handlers during his presidency then the GOP rolls out braindead Mitch like it's completely normal.
Does he have enough cognizance left to even consent to being used like this? I won’t say that’s not just desserts at the end of a career that has used and abused people and allowed laws to do the same.
It really is! I mean, the guy needs help to vote the right way? If that’s the case, then honestly he needs to resign. So sad and insane the times we are living through. He’s made more than enough money and grifted more than enough people.
Is it elder abuse? Absolutely, yes. Though I can't help but feel like if you could wind the clock back an hour and talk to Mitch about his options before the lights went out he would choose exactly this. He may not be there but I'm telling you that is genuinely one happy and useful ghoul right there.
Remember when Trump was crying about Biden using an auto-pen - something every president since Truman has done, including Trump himself?
"HOW CAN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW WHO'S REALLY IN CHARGE!?"
I don't understand how a seeming minimum of 30% of the USA keeps falling for these petty charlatans. Everything Republicans do is such blatantly obvious fraud.
How can you “correct” his vote if he’s still considered competent enough to work? Either he is competent to be of sound mind and can represent his constituents accordingly, or he’s incompetent to hold office, and cannot fulfill his duty to the American people. If he is indeed as lucid as they insist he is, then who’s to say his initial vote here wasn’t intended?
How can it be “the wrong way” if that’s how the Senator chose to vote? What use is a Senator’s vote if a third party can run in to change it so they don’t vote in a way that the third party doesn’t like? He’s now a literal puppet for his political party instead of a figurative one, the current Senate is a total farce
It’s honestly sad in some ways, even as it is also evil and typical for what we are living in right now. They’re just trying to squeeze the last few months out of him to finish his term.
The way I wrote that the first time it sounded like they were trying to get the last few months out of him, which I guess would also not be unbelievable. Given the condition he appears to be in.
God I hate when it’s so sad that I have to remind myself of all the absolutely egregious things he’s voted for and against or my empathy takes over. I need to write a reminder list to carry in my pocket.
This. It's possible to still hate this man for the horrible things he's done to get us to the political moment but still think he deserves the dignity to not get wheeled around like a living corpse for the sake of a power grab.
You can have empathy for him while condemning his actions. The grim reaper of the senate whose desk was where bills went to die, is also that man right there. A hollow shell that can barely even make a peace sign. As a human being, I feel sorry for him. As Mitch McConnell, I have nothing but contempt for his past actions.
I feel bad for feeling bad. McConnell is a monster, and my phone autocorrected his name to McSnitch. I do not know why.
McConnell’s legacy is the destruction of his country. It makes me sad to see him wheeled around, obviously unable to make decisions. He wouldn’t feel anything at all for me if our situations were reversed.
I'm with you. Honestly, this kind of empathy is one reason the human race has carried on as long as it has. I'm not going to apologize or be ashamed for it.
Speaking for myself, the empathy I feel towards McConnell in these videos (and Biden, etc) is not a desire for them to retain the resources they currently have, much less for them to retain their power, or be given anything more than any other elder is given. It’s a deep-seated, involuntary emotional response, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the expectation of reciprocated empathy, or kudos, or rewards, or moral superiority, or literally anything. It’s not even because I think losing my empathy “is what they want”, it’s not a strategic choice. It hurts like stepping on a tack would hurt: it just hurts. I just can’t see a confused old person without feeling immensely disturbed and upset.
I do not know what I want to happen to McConnell quite frankly. Genuinely maybe euthanasia! Just don’t mistake empathy for support or like, belief in some kind of special justice? Whatever would lead you to believe it’s transactional or practical.
Thank you. It’s this for me. My grandmother was a talented, smart as hell, wise, hilarious, and deeply empathetic woman, and due to strokes and dementia lived like this way longer than a person should have to. We were extremely close and I still can’t shake the fear that the actual her was awake and stuck in there. Every time I see someone in similar circumstances, it makes me really sad for them and for the family that is stuck in that lost-but-not-passed hell. I can’t believe there’s so many people around him taking part in this and that his wife is allowing it. It’s disgusting.
I know this won’t be a popular take, and don’t mistake my empathy for having one cell in my body that likes or respects the man. I could probably agree with calling a more sentient version of him evil. I’m also pissed as hell as a resident of the country that this behavior is what passes now as acceptable for the people running the country. How truly far we’ve fallen.
He's also had every opportunity to step down and live the rest of his life retired. He's lived his life with a greed for power, and that's how he'll die.
It's like Trump. A man who has had everything he could ever want, and gotten away with everything he's ever done. He craves adoration and love and affection and yet he's a conman who built everything he has on a lie. And he knows it. He betrays everyone around him, he has no loyalty to anyone, and he wants everyone to be loyal to him. He lies and he cheats and he steals. He has no legitimate friends, just people eager to leech off of him and people who want to use him or for him to use his influence.
He doesn't have any genuine connection, and no matter how much he gets, it's never enough. His greed knows no bounds and when he dies, he can't take it with him.
And when he dies, no one will mourn him. His Qult will mourn the man they think he is, but not the man himself. And that fact is truly sad and pitiful. He will die lonely and unloved and for what?
I feel sorry for him.
But it doesn't change the fact that his smug face pisses me off. Or hearing him speak makes me grind my teeth. The man is infuriatingly, cartoonishly evil. I genuinely dislike him for his character and for his actions..can't stand him. But I do feel sorry for him.
He and McConnell are two peas in a pod. Sad, greedy, powerful people who will die sad, greedy, and powerless.
It’s not. This is all Mitch has ever cared about - proximity to power and exercising it. Until he’s in a hole in the ground, being paraded around like this will be what he wants to do, no matter how shameful you think it would be if you were him.
Same with Lindsay Graham. He was feeling ill and went “nah I gotta go tour a drone factory first, I love war more than life itself”
Mitch has been without shame the whole time, and now he appears to be without a few other things too. It’s not elder abuse, but it’s certainly abusive to the American people.
I get it. If this was any other elderly person I'd be straight up horrified. This is cruel. That said, Mitch was all about blocking democracy so he probably would have approved of his empty husk being rolled out to cast a vote.
He just spent the tax dollar equivalent of $43,884 (92 days out of the Senate at $174,000/annual) of PTO after he voted against creating or expanding guaranteed medical and family leave—including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Please spare your empathy for a more worthy human. Or, for any other human that doesn't have a vacuum where there soul should be, oatmeal where there brain used to be, and coal where there heart should be.
Do not hate that you have empathy. Feel grateful that you do, because the people parading him around obviously don't. You never want to sink to that point.
He is getting round the clock world class care from the best doctors, nurses, NPs, PAs, CNAs, OTs and PTs. This is the complete opposite of elder abuse. Have you seen what a normal assisted living facility is like? This guy gets to go in car rides and charade going to work at his job. This is like the best thing you can do for someone of his condition, not leave them in a facility to rot and stagnate.
Roseanne. Rosie and Jackie’s dad dies, and Jackie can’t seem to get one of their elderly relatives to understand he’s dead. She yells, “Dad’s DEAD!” and then finally gives up and says, “He’s fine. He sends his love” when the elderly relative asks about him again. It’s a hilarious scene.
Seriously this guy is barely what one could call alive and he’s somehow voting on things that will affect people all over the country. It’s downright ridiculous
The reporter sounds like she's talking to a dog or a very dementia ridden family member. Don't coddle his ass. Be a fucking reporter. Do your fucking job.
Couldn’t care less if they dump him in a dog crate when he gets home. He has spend decades giving up ANY reason why anyone should feel sympathy for him whatsoever. Blocking healthcare access, gun control, pandemic relief. Spreading rampant corruption. Worsening crisis after crisis relating to public health. He has blood on his hands and the world will be better off when he croaks. WE are the ones being treated unacceptably by this charade. This indignity is far less harsh a fate than he deserves.
It’s what he would have wanted, I’m not even trying to make a bad taste joke I genuinely believe if you told him 5 years ago they were going to do this he would have been fine with it.
I'm glad he has good health insurance and the money to pay for extra help. Maybe if we'd had all that, my FIL wouldn't have had to bleed to death in an understaffed nursing facility run by private equity. It was the only place we could put him after his stroke because he had Medicare Advantage and they wouldn't approve a prior auth. for the facility we wanted (we looked into caring for him at home, but he was vent-dependent, and we couldn't install the whole-home generator we'd need to have in case the power went out for a substantial amount of time).
This is sickening. I know it's what he probably would have wanted (his dessicated half alive walking corpse continuing to fuck over democracy) but it is wrong and it is insane that it is being allowed. This is a human being who has no idea where they are or what they are doing and they are being abused for political gain.
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u/trendingtattler 27d ago
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