U. S. Government
30-foot-long section of border fence that separated
the Mexican city of Mexicali from the U.S. city of Calexico, California
(c. 1950s)

"Few will mourn what had already become just more Irrelevancies pretending they're dancing on that stage."

Most presidential acts are destined to become Irrelevancies. Heartfelt proposals meant to transform mostly fall far short of their promise. A few of the least obviously brilliant ideas might eventually morph enough to contribute to making a real difference, but these will largely go unnoticed. The first nuclear reactor accident was not the result of clever technology failing, but of a maintenance man accidentally dropping a wrench: an inadvertence. That innocent incident rendered all the clever safety mechanisms deliberately embedded in the technology irrelevant. Much of what we insist must exist for any society to thrive will likewise probably ultimately amount to simply more Irrelevancies. I might rail about people who wear their pajamas to shopping centers, but I suspect this practice will not ultimately cause the fall of anybody’s civilization. My youthful self would not have believed that I would one day voluntarily submit to vaccinations in the meat department of my local Safeway store, for that would have been unthinkable. When the unthinkable becomes commonplace, old insistences have already become Irrelevancies.

We’re entrained to believe that our President is the most powerful person in the world. This assertion might even be true, but much of that power doesn’t really matter. Even exercised, as our current incumbent enthusiastically demonstrates, power does not directly translate into great influence. What if the most powerful country in world history chose to invade a neighboring country and thereby accomplish precisely nothing? That scenario was previously unthinkable. Now, we’ve seen the scenario play out to essentially no effect. In the wrong hands, even the greatest power in this world becomes as good as irrelevant. In this way, our presidency must be somewhat self-correcting. Anyone not really fit for the role cannot seem to leverage even the greatest power in the world to accomplish anything likely to be lasting. Most, if not all, of what our incumbent has insisted must be important has foundered instead on the dull, rusty edge of its own ultimately inescapable irrelevancy.

Irrelevance might be the most common Comeuppance in existence. We’re each destined for it to occur to us personally, and we’ll mostly, eventually, find acceptance and even pledge a Good Riddance before we finally depart, richer or poorer for the experience. Few of us age with much dignity, but aging was probably never meant to be a process that amplifies our dignity. No, we’re each subjected to ever-increasing doses of humility, if not necessarily humiliation. By the time we hit eighty or so, we’re understandably cranky. Nickel candy costs more than a dollar by then, and whatever taste buds once reveled over sweet have grown to prefer bitterness instead. It’s all inexorable. This explains why we really must be more careful about electing any senior President. The presidency requires someone more hopeful than cynical, someone who honestly believes they might make a genuine difference without being altogether too over-the-top ignorant about their actual chances. The last thing we need in that role, as our incumbent daily reminds us, is someone already deeply into their Irrelevancies, for they inevitably already carry their Comeuppance too prominently.

Irrelevance itself might truly be the most common Comeuppance in existence. They’ve always insisted that the seeds of everyone’s eventual demise are planted at birth, but they do not always sprout and start to take real root until middle to late middle age. By seventy, I suspected that my shadows were already starting to resolve. The great mystery no longer completely baffles me at my advanced (by which I mean degraded) age, and I’ve self-selected out of many previously aspired-for experiences. I am learning acceptance, if not necessarily always gratitude. My eventual inescapable Irrelevancies might not matter that much, even to me. I might even see these as curiously liberating. I will eventually receive the sum of my Irrelevances in the form of my own personal Comeuppance. Good riddance!

As for our incumbent, he finds himself in perhaps the least enviable position I can personally imagine. His Irrelevancies seem to be visiting while he’s on stage, perhaps the biggest stage there is for a politician or an authoritarian. There are no private politicians or secret authoritarians, for their existence simply has to occur on stage with altogether too many witnesses. This fact also means that their Irrelevancies inevitably overtake whatever once passed for their stage presence. They increasingly obviously can no longer dance, and their attempts just further solidify the already inescapable impression that he’s no longer sentient. Even if our erstwhile politician/authoritarian fails to notice his own performance failing, he can’t help but notice his Comeuppance tailing him. Even his fervent denials only confirm what had already become so screamingly obvious. Comeuppances are generally best experienced in private. They were never really intended to be a spectator sport, but in this case, in this one instance, I’m willing to make an exception to that general rule. A significant part of this particular Comeuppance will be that it will most certainly occur under the Klieg lights. The haphazardly applied makeup will ultimately fail to cover what has long been so obvious. Few will mourn what had already become just more Irrelevancies pretending they’re dancing on that stage.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Comeuppance, #PureSchmaltz