Quite a few of our commanders in chefs were heavy drinkers. Many of our founding fathers did not go gently into that good night.
But that was then, this is now.
What if an American President was a hopeless alcoholic. Just wasted off his ass more than 50% of the time. And didn’t give a shit who knew.
What if he/she was a pot head and smoked a lot of weed? What if they did that in a location where it wasn’t illegal to get around the “high crimes and misdemeanors” thing?
How would the media deal with it? How would/could congress?
“You fellows, in your business, you have a way of handling problems like this. Somebody leaves a pistol in the drawer[…]I don’t have a pistol.” —Richard Nixon, to General Haig.
Nixon was a drunk especially when watergate broke . Secret service were seriously concerned about him. Jfk was stoned for most of his presidency on pharmaceuticals.
Wilson and Reagan were nearly brain-dead by the end of their terms. The administration just went on without them.
The media deals with it the same way the media deals with everything else – the media self-servingly does what is good for the media, blurring the lines between its fact and fiction wings, news and entertainment.
Perhaps a British perspective will be of interest.
The leader of the Liberal Democrats between 1999 and 2006 was Charles Kennedy. He had ‘alcohol problems’ and sought professional help at times. It is believed his party knew of the issue but, because Kennedy was a good orator, they did nothing about it.
Kennedy would often drink with the press and appear intoxicated around the press. However it wasn’t until 2006 he was informed ITN (the independent television news as opposed to the BBC) were about to run a piece about his alcohol problems.
Kennedy then admitted problems but claimed to have dealt with them. He resigned the leadership but announced he would run in a new leadership contest before he was persuaded by his party not to. He remained in the Liberals as a politician until his death, from alcohol related disease, in 2012.
So in the UK it appears neither political party nor press will over react. Unless the story comes out and then they turn on you.
“Rage, rage, against the dying of the light” didn’t refer to “drink, drink more booze, and hope to get too drunk to feel your death”, despite what you might think about it.
I read somewhere years ago that HW Bush and Reagan’s cabinet considered invoking the 25th amendment after the attempted assassination because Reagan wasn’t really fully recovered for about a year. I’ve never been able to track that down though.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Still time to get more beers in, though.
