"The Man Who Isn't There"

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“The Man Who Isn’t There”

June 25, 2021

 

“Look in his eyes for a dying flare,

Look for the wind in his yellow hair,

And pretend

You see the man

Who isn’t there.”

                                                                                                                                     Oren Lavie (1976-)

                                                                                                                                   “The Man Who Isn’t There.” 2007

 

In a 2006 report, Jonathon R.T. Davidson, Professor (now Emeritus) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, utilizing biographical sources, wrote about the first thirty-seven U.S. Presidents (Washington through Nixon). His conclusion: eighteen of them had some form of mental illness, from depression and anxiety to bipolar disorders and alcohol abuse/dependence. Given the pressure under which Presidents operate, perhaps such findings are not surprising.

 

In 1964, in response to a group of psychiatrists claiming Barry Goldwater unfit for office the American Psychiatric Association issued a statement, which said in part: “…it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.” That caveat has not stopped “armchair psychiatrists” from offering unfavorable opinions about Presidents, especially Republican ones, including Ronald Reagan who was called an “idiot savant” and who some said showed signs of early onset Alzheimer’s, and George W. Bush who was called a “puppet of Dick Cheney” and who others said exhibited “deep feelings of inadequacy.”

 

But no President was ever mentally scrutinized as closely as was Donald Trump. Even before the election Representative Karen Bass (D-CA and without a medical degree) launched a petition to have Mr. Trump psychologically examined, claiming he exhibited signs of narcissistic personality disorder. In December 2017, more than a dozen members of Congress invited a Yale University psychiatry professor Dr. Bandy X. Lee to evaluate Trump’s behavior. Without ever meeting him, and in contravention of the 1964 statement issued by the American Psychiatric Association, she was quoted by Politico: “He’s going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs…Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressure of the presidency” In response to non-stop attacks on his fitness for office, Donald Trump, in 2020, took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a brief test of about thirty questions. He claimed he “aced” it, though Canadian inventor of the test, Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, said Mr. Trump’s score showed “normal performance.” 

 

Given that Presidents have the “Gold Codes,” which are the launch codes for nuclear weapons, does it not make sense to ensure our Presidents are mentally sound? Jimmy Carter thought so. In the December 1994 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, he wrote: “Many people have called to my attention the continuing danger to our nation from the possibility of a U.S. President becoming disabled, particularly by a neurological illness.”  A commission was considered but never created, thus the sole determinant of a candidate’s mental and physical fitness to serve is the rigor of the campaign.

 

That brings us to President Biden. I am an observer, not a psychiatrist or psychologist, so my opinions carry no authority. Nevertheless, like many others, I worry about the acuity of our 46^th President. Campaigning largely from his Delaware home during last year’s pandemic, the American people were unable to get a sense of his mental fitness. His speeches were and are scripted, as are his press conferences. It is true that he has a stutter, which can be confused with mental lapses. And to give him his due, Mr. Biden’s personal life has been tragic: His wife and one-year-old daughter were killed in an automobile accident in 1972. His son Beau died of brain cancer at age 46 in 2015. His surviving son, Hunter, with his business dealings in China, Ukraine and Russia, his oft-use of the N-word, and his new career in art where his patrons are not identified, are embarrassments or worse.  

 

Some of Mr. Biden’s problems are self-inflicted: His habits of unwelcome hugs, touches and smooches to women are creepy. Some of his verbal transgressions suggest racial condescension and a temper: In 2006, about Americans who had emigrated from India – “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. And I’m not joking.” About Barack Obama in 2007 – “You’ve got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate, bright and clean.” In 2020 to black radio host Charlemagne The God: “Well, I’m telling you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” 

 

However, when one watches him on TV, one wonders if he is “the man who isn’t there.” Slurred words, cognitive freezes and vacant eyes mar some speeches and press conferences, even when he has the aid of a teleprompter. Also, even with a friendly media, he seems to lose his temper more often than he did.

 

I do not worry that he will do something rash like launch a nuclear attack, because I am certain his handlers will prevent such action. But that is the source of my greatest concern. Who is in charge? Who is the ‘Oz’ behind the curtain pulling the strings and levers? It is this not knowing who is steering the ship of state that is worrying. Mr. Biden’s forty-seven years in public service would not suggest the progressive policies he now promotes. With the election of Mr. Trump, you may not have liked what you got, but you knew what you were getting. With Mr. Biden, you may have liked what you thought you were getting, but you cannot be sure of what you got. If the Democrat leadership knowingly ran a man for President who was in mental decline that would be a black mark against the concept of free and fair elections.

 

One is reminded of lines by Alfred Joyce Kilmer, the American poet who was killed in France on July 30, 1918:

 

“I suppose I’ve passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute

And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.”

 

A house now inhabited by a 78-year-old man whose blond hair has turned white, a man who may not be there.