This is serious. There is a warrant out for the arrest of a Democrat state representative in Pennsylvania, Kevin Boyle, and his family is saying that he is suffering from mental health issues. That is a shame, and we can all hope that Boyle will soon be found and that no harm is done to him or to anyone else. At the same time, however, this unfolding incident raises two key questions: the first is, how could anyone tell that a Democrat politician was mentally ill? And seriously, are there simply no standards for elected officials anymore?
CBS Philadelphia reported Wednesday that the arrest warrant for Boyle is for “a violation of a protection from abuse order.” It seems that Boyle “texted his estranged wife, which is a violation of that order.” But this is about more than just a text: Boyle “was arrested and charged in 2021 for harassment and violating a protection order filed by his estranged wife.” After that, Boyle “told constituents in a letter in 2022 that subsequent treatment at a mental health facility helped save his life.” That would have been a happy ending to the story, but unfortunately, it wasn’t the ending at all.
“Two months ago,” according to CBS, “Boyle went viral on social media after he was seen on camera allegedly threatening staff at the Gaul & Co. Malt House on Huntingdon Pike in Rockledge, Montgomery County. Police said Boyle was reportedly drunk and possibly under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident.” He was “asked to leave the bar several times by employees but refused and allegedly threatened the employees.” The proprietors of the Gaul & Co. Malt House banned Boyle from the premises.
Boyle’s brother is a member of the U.S. Congress, Brendan Boyle (D-Pennsylvania). He says Kevin Boyle’s troubles have been a “nightmare” for the family. “Like any family who has a beloved member with a serious health issue,” Brendan Boyle said in a statement, “we are doing the best we can to help him get better.” Kevin, according to Brendan, “made a full recovery” from a “very serious mental health condition” in 2021, but now it appears that he is suffering a relapse.
Brendan Boyle’s statement continued: “Tragically, several months ago his symptoms returned. In recent weeks his mental health has even further deteriorated. It’s been painful to watch an intelligent, accomplished person with a big heart decline in such a precipitous way. Kevin’s family, close friends, and several colleagues have done everything possible to get him to enter into treatment, but we have been frustrated by a system that gives little power to the loved ones of an adult with a serious mental health condition.”
Yes, it is sad and painful. But it raises a question: why is Kevin Boyle still a member of the Pennsylvania State House? He is in the middle of his seventh term as a state representative from Pennsylvania District 172 and is currently seeking reelection. And why not? If Old Joe Biden can seek reelection despite the ever-mounting evidence of his cognitive impairment, and the late Dianne Feinstein could serve in the Senate despite numerous signs that she had no idea what was going on there, there are just no standards for elected officials anymore. Given his state of mind, Kevin Boyle might not be expected to resign, but why haven’t House Democrats made any move to replace him?
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The answer is obvious: as CBS notes, “Democrats currently control the Pennsylvania House with a slim majority and the Pennsylvania primary is coming up soon on April 23.” Republicans are “hoping to flip Boyle’s seat in the House in the general election.” Democrats, avid to maintain control of his seat, “say it’s his right to vote by designation, meaning another lawmaker votes on his behalf.”
And these are Democrats, anyway. By any objective analysis, someone who thinks men can become women and that nations don’t need secure borders, to say nothing of thinking that Old Joe Biden is a competent and capable president who deserves to feed at the public trough for four more years, is insane as it is. So if someone else votes in Kevin Boyle’s place, it hardly makes a difference.
Nevertheless, the sad saga of Kevin Boyle is yet another indication of how much the American political system has degenerated. In earlier eras, a mentally incapacitated candidate would have been removed from office, and the ballot, as a matter of course, even if his party suffered politically as a result. But come on, man! Now we have a mentally incapacitated candidate in the Oval Office, and cruising, if all the cheating works, toward reelection. Get with the times.
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