Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania suffered a serious stroke, as well as a mental hospital stay. Instead of business suits, he wears a hoodie and shorts on the Senate floor. The Senate leadership had three choices:
1) Insist that Fetterman dress appropriately.
2) Allow him an exception to the rules because of his health problems.
3) Throw out the rules and allow senators to wear anything, even clown suits – which, come to think of it, may be appropriate.
This is the paradigm for modern America. A small minority is uncomfortable – with business suits, with their sex, with whatever. We don’t insist on conforming with reality. We don’t allow occasional exceptions. No, we trash the rules and use the outliers as models for everyone.
When I was a kid, my father bought me a horn for my bicycle. But not an old-fashioned horn with a rubber bulb, an electric horn. I couldn’t figure out how it worked, so I took it apart. I couldn’t put it back together, and I still couldn’t figure out how it worked.
I thought my father would be angry, but he said nothing. He knew I had learned a valuable lesson: Don’t dismantle what you don’t understand and can’t put back together.
You enjoy tearing things down? Get a job with a demolition contractor, but get your stinking hands off my country.
