The serially mendacity Republican congressman must resign. However he additionally wants assist.
George Santos is, I think, sick.
I defer to psychologists to account for the provenance and pathology of the besieged United States congressman’s litany of lies which have pushed him right into a maelstrom of his personal making.
The breathtaking scope and nature of these lies about his education, work, religion and household have, understandably, not solely rendered Santos a deeply unsympathetic determine however raised the likelihood that his deceptions could have a extra sinister hue.
Santos has deceived many individuals, together with, in fact, his New York constituents who elected him to workplace in 2022 by a cushty margin on the power, partly, of a powerful résumé that seems to be largely fictitious.
Since he was uncovered as a serial liar, Santos has been the topic of a near-daily weight loss program of tales and commentary which, taken collectively, have delved into his labyrinth of lies in head-shaking element and prompt that his wanting character is an avatar of those equally wanting instances.
Santos’s lies are so outlandish and, in some respects, offensive, that they rival Donald Trump’s legion of lies of their halting scope and audacity.
That Santos appropriated the Holocaust and 9/11 amongst his catalogue of outrageous elaborations and exaggerations speaks to the depth of his Trump-like facility to disfigure the reality to additional his parochial political pursuits and ambition.
He has develop into poisonous, even amongst lots of his Republican colleagues, a number of of whom have rightly referred to as on Santos to resign.
Santos’ refusal to take action has confirmed his blindness to actuality and made him a pariah. That turned obvious in the course of the protracted vote to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the Home of Representatives earlier this month.
At first, Santos sat alone within the chamber fiddling along with his cellphone to cross the time, wanting misplaced and forlorn. Then, after he was mocked within the press and on social media, Santos retreated into an anteroom, solely to emerge briefly to help McCarthy with the intention to keep away from additional embarrassment.
It will be easy for me to affix the withering pile-on, not solely to ridicule Santos, however to excoriate him for his, by now, acquainted glossary of egregious lies.
On the danger of being dismissed as a Pollyanna, I as a substitute ask my colleagues within the fourth property and readers to pause and take into account that Santos could also be affected by a psychological illness that not solely explains his aberrant behaviour, but in addition calls for our charity, sympathy and understanding.
Sure, our charity, sympathy and understanding.
I'm not going to play novice psychologist and enterprise a prognosis of the congressman. It's clear to me, nonetheless, that this troubled younger man wants assist. I pity him.
Loneliness – whoever endures it and for no matter purpose they endure it – shouldn't be fodder for the merciless pleasure of any columnist.
Lately, a lot is written and stated in regards to the necessity to undertake a extra enlightened perspective in the direction of psychological sickness and to recognise how endemic the ache and harm is amongst all types of individuals, in all walks of life, together with, I dare say, politicians.
Sadly, these progressive attitudes typically evaporate immediately when a juicy political story units off a furore. Then, the actual, keenly felt human penalties of that reporting develop into an afterthought, if they're examined in any respect.
Whereas I acknowledge that Santos is the writer of his misfortune and the scrutiny and potential sanctions that may circulate, predictably, from his deceit, I've tried to examine the toll that the drip-by-drip revelations and the blanket nationwide and worldwide publicity are exacting on the congressman’s thoughts, physique and soul.
It can't be straightforward.
My hope is that Santos, regardless of his many and manifest sins, has a confidant who can steer him to do the fitting and honourable factor.
In the intervening time, Santos is selecting as a substitute to make certified, half-hearted apologies and supply up sorry, absurd explanations and rationales to attempt to mollify his critics inside and out of doors the media.
Looking for solace amongst scoundrels on cable TV and trusting that information cycles inevitably flip, is a dropping technique that may solely compound Santos’s cascading troubles.
Santos can get better a measure of grace and honesty if he admits that his nascent political profession is over, apologises sincerely to his constituents and pledges to make severe and tangible amends for all of the lies he has instructed.
However it will require one thing of Santos that he has, to this point, been unable to muster: a forthright appreciation of what he has accomplished and why he has accomplished it.
There are thoughtful professionals who can information Santos in the direction of that obligatory, if belated, discovery provided that he chooses, in some unspecified time in the future, to hunt them out.
Maybe he'll. Maybe time and distance will present Santos with the attitude and perception to return to phrases along with his dishonourable previous and current too.
Santos hinted at such introspection when he stated that a few of his lies had been the consequence of the “vulnerability of being human”.
His admission struck me as a sliver of candour amid the cobweb of lies Santos has weaved to create an interesting and achieved character who doesn't exist however who was rewarded with a coveted seat in Congress.
Till Santos summons the need, braveness and power to do the fitting factor, for the fitting causes, on the proper time, he'll proceed to wash himself in disgrace and disrepute.
Nonetheless, we'd do effectively to do not forget that everybody, given the chance and encouragement, is able to change, even George Santos.
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