Opinion: It is time for the 25th

It is time, past time really, for those in power to stop evading their solemn duty to our nation. The president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden Jr., is no longer capable of shouldering the grave burdens of his office.

No, I am no medical professional who is capable of diagnosing a patient over distant media. I do not need to be. Neither do those tasked in this Amendment need to be.

It is self-evident that Mr. Biden is unable to manage himself, let alone his high office. He deserves a happy and comfortable retirement after a lifetime in public life. His family should be more concerned with his well-being than with their own status and power, as relatives of the president.

The frail Leonid Brezhnev and Konstantin Chernenko were so infirm in the early 1980s that the government of the USSR was really dominated by corrupt forces behind the scenes. This was a direct cause of their defeat in the Cold War.

So it is now with the venerable Biden. Domestically, inflation is destroying our middle class, "Green New Deal" environmental policy is exacerbating this, preventable supply chain shortages threaten the chemical fertilizers that our coming harvest depends upon, and our southern border is being invaded at the behest of self-serving politicians.

Overseas, the Iranians are being appeased, the Chinese see opportunity in our weakness, and Russia is openly bullying the world with its nuclear arsenal. These are but a few of the exponentially increasing difficulties that we citizens of the Republic face because of Biden's enfeeblement.

This plea, for responsible U.S. officials to fulfill their Constitutional responsibilities, is not entirely partisan. A President Kamala D. Harris would not be a blessing to my Conservative self.

But assuming presidential responsibilities at need is precisely her job. To stabilize the present domestic and global crises, we require a physically capable and mentally-alert individual in the office of president.

It is past time to invoke the 25th Amendment, send Joe Biden to his rest, and have the person who took an Oath of Office to replace the president at need to fulfill her promise.

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25th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

Presidential Disability and Succession

Passed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 10, 1967. The 25th Amendment changed a portion of Article II, Section 1

Section 1: In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2: Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3: Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4: Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

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In Maine and then Idaho, Ralph K. Ginorio has taught the history of western civilization to high school students for nearly a quarter century. He is an “out-of-the-closet” Conservative educator with experience in special education, public schools and charter schools, grades 6-12. He has lived in Coeur d’Alene since 2014. Email: rginorio@cdapress.com