It was perfect timing as I was far from home these past two weeks in Iceland and the UK.
Just as President Biden proved to the nation that he could not serve another four years, much less another week, I left the madness of American politics and jetted off to Europe on a holiday cruise.
As I have done many times before, I was traveling with my wife, Colleen, who works as a travel agent, and some of her clients, but this time I was joined by my two children, Cameron and Ashley, and their families.
Our Reagan family had a particularly wonderful time in Iceland.
On Reykjavik’s beautiful waterfront, we visited Hofdi House, where my father made world history in 1986.
One would never guess that this modest whitewashed building was where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time and began the military negotiations that ultimately brought about a peaceful end to the Cold War.
The Reagan family also enjoyed a dip in Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon, a geothermal hot spring whose mineral-rich waters are said to be both relaxing and therapeutic.
During the trip I relaxed by watching England and Spain win soccer matches against Holland and France to reach the European Cup Final, and I also watched a lot of the Tour de France on TV.
I paid little attention to the daily chaos, panic and round-the-clock bullshit going on within my own Democratic Party after Biden’s terrible performance in the debate against Trump.
I knew the liberal media had turned their back on their hero, Old Joe.
I knew that the news media had known about this for years but had not reported on it in order to protect Trump, and so they pretended to be angry at the Biden administration for misleading them about the severity of Trump’s declining mental state.
But I was on a pleasure cruise, not a torture ship, so I refused to talk about American politics at dinner or watch American politics on TV, and I stayed off Twitter and all social media.
Now, back home in Los Angeles, I realize I hadn’t missed much. Biden’s question — whether he would have to drop out of the race or whether he could stay — has little to do with the obvious frail state of his brain and body.
Biden has played the role of a fake president for four years, and the real power is in the hands of those around and behind him, who wrote the script and used him as a front for a third term for President Obama.
For Democratic Party leaders, it’s all about defeating Donald Trump in November and staying in power.
But the reality is, it doesn’t matter whether Biden or Trump wins: Whoever controls the Senate will control the nation’s politics for the next four years.
If the Republicans don’t take back the Senate from the Democrats, Trump will be at the mercy of Chuck Schumer and won’t be able to get anything passed.
If Biden wins but the Republicans control the Senate, which seems like a good bet in theory, anything Biden wants will be blocked by a Republican Senate.
In other words, Congress will be gridlocked. That’s the reality.
Gridlock would be a blessing if the country wasn’t in the mess Biden has created.
But the borders are wide open and both parties in Washington are destroying the future with drunken spending and trillion-dollar annual deficits.
These and other issues need to be resolved, not postponed for another four years.
Everybody’s talking about Trump’s high approval ratings, which is encouraging, but even if Trump wins by a landslide, it means nothing if the Republicans don’t take the Senate.
To paraphrase that crazy Cajun James Carville, the Republican campaign slogan for 2024 will be “The Senate is the problem, idiot.”
Michael Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan, is an author, speaker, and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. Send comments to reagan@caglecartoons.com and follow him on Twitter @reaganworld.
