Opinion/Editorial
THE NINTH INNING
The presidency of the United States is still in its early days since the change following the last national election. However, due to the explosive nature of that election (elections do have consequences, as so many republicans love to smilingly say, or at least used to say) the real effect, in this ‘game’ of a president’s term, herein analogically put up in this article as that of a baseball game, is comparable to the ninth inning of a tied baseball game. The unquestionably most important player on the field is the pitcher, and today that is the president himself.
This president is throwing pitches that are visibly and viscerally being struck by everyone on the opposing team, that would be the public itself, and all contacts are going foul. There’s no limit in baseball to the number of foul balls that can be hit when a batter is at bat. The nature of those foul balls can be relatively easily described. There’s the chaotic contact hit and caroming nature of the ball’s unpredictable path. There’s the pain to the point of killing (as will all the unnamed and ignored children already dead from the cutting of U.S. Aid to them in third world countries) of foul balls striking bystanders of all kinds, in energy, air traffic control, education, and more.
There’s the vapid stupidity of balls hit right into the stomachs of spectators, denying them constitutional rights like due process. The thing about foul balls is that they still travel somewhere. The former president is accused by all republicans of note as being infirm and incapable of doing anything except for somehow being most capable of corruption and theft. In other words, that president threw all the balls and walked all kinds of members of the public who went on to do what? Continue to secure the allied relationships of our lifelong friends following WWII. Continuing trade relations with foreign countries, which have made the USA by far the most successful economic entity the world has ever seen. Keep the nation out of a war where its citizens are killed, by using proxy warriors and providing plenty of advanced equipment to fight. And so on.
Presidents (or pitchers in this mythically made-up game) who have done nothing should be praised and not attacked. Bush Jr. did nothing except talk following 911, and, when not talking, quite successfully attacked the wrong country as the enemy. Obama did almost nothing except talk and get a semi-successful national health system put in place for the unfortunate and poor. Clinton was a great talking pitcher who also talked very smoothly almost all the time, but in fact, did little or nothing.
You see, presidents have almost no time, and the public out there, whether in the stands, playing, or simply watching things happen on television, has not clue about time and such a position. A president must likely make between three and seven thousand decisions a day. Given the hours and minutes of any day, well, the math is most punishing. Therefore, most presidential decisions have no contact or even a knowledgeable connection to any sitting president. Those decisions are made by nearly nameless others in the name of the president. If those named people become famous by appointment, then they are also consigned to the no-time bin. This time effect is also something applied to Congress. Most representatives and senators never read the bills they sign or approve, or even disapprove of. They simply don’t have the time. They all depend upon nameless legions of workers to do the reading and then advise them.
The current president, to give you an idea of how this really works timewise, as this is written, is in a pissing contest with what was once the richest man on earth (now number nine or so and descending rapidly in that ranking). He’s sitting in the White House, Air Force One or Mar-a-Lago and contemplating his next insult or evil act to get even with what the rich guy is saying about him. Meaningless garbage, compared to the results coming in moment by moment in Ukraine, Gaza, or even China and all that entails. There he is, spending his time on meaningless drama, which puts him very comfortably in the Biden position when he was president. This is good news for the country.
Presidents seldom have either the intellect, the advisors, or even the materials in front of them to make wide and studied opinions and then the courage to act on those opinions. And since, given the moving finger of time, they don’t have that time, the nation is much better off with an addled president, making verbal war on a rich drug addict or simply playing golf. The real decision-makers are never going to be known by the public, and that’s a good thing, because if they become known, then they lose the time to do any decision-making except about themselves, their own comfort, enrichment, and public image. The bottom of the ninth is approaching much faster than anyone could have imagined before this president took over. The game will end soon but baseball and the public will live on into the next season.
Most of the nation’s population loves baseball. Most baseball pitchers are lousy. The public cares but continues to move on, inning by inning, game by game, and season to season. Therefore, the public needs bad pitchers and presidents. It’s all about defining the word bad when considering this, and that’s a work of pure fiction.
