Megalomaniac (noun) - A person who suffers delusions of their own power or importance.
Who comes to mind? If we were able to poll it in real time here at Townhall.com, one name would run away with it. Dr. Anthony Fauci, of course.
It’s been tough sledding for the good doctor over the last weeks. Well documented gain of function research he’s been funding and caught lying about before Congress, coupled with disgusting evidence he’s funded torturous experiments on dogs and monkeys. Animal welfare groups have him in their crosshairs.
Fauci is no longer simply an enemy of the “right wing.” He’s appropriately viewed as a maniacal liar by activists not typically found at GOP fundraisers. The Biden White House has officially presided over more “COVID deaths” per the CDC than the Trump White House before it. The COVID death metric was said to be one of the big reasons Trump had to go, replaced with a more “responsible” leader who would tackle the pandemic and bring it to an end.
Fauci has managed to stick around, unscathed through it all. Somehow never taking the blame when Trump got it and still accepting no responsibility when it’s Biden’s turn. How’s that work exactly? Two presidents. One worse than the other by way of COVID metrics and there’s only one commonality between both men. Fauci.
He faded away for a while after suffering rhetorical destruction by Senator Rand Paul on Capitol Hill and the animal cruelty charges that surfaced. It might have felt safe to assume his time in the sun had officially ended.
But along came Omicron and with it the media image rehab of the pocket-sized tyrant America is learning to loathe. But this time he returned with a distinctly different edge - defiant, petulant. and incredibly partisan. Most of all, colossally self-important.
Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation, Fauci responded to his critics:
“…anybody who's looking at this carefully realizes that there's a distinct anti-science flavor to this. So if they get up and criticize science, nobody's going to know what they're talking about. But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well, people could recognize there's a person there. There's a face, there's a voice you can recognize, you see him on television. So it's easy to criticize, but they're really criticizing science because I represent science.”
Sincerely, who speaks like that? No one you’d want to be around or consider sane, presumably.
Can you imagine a professional NFL player after a loss saying, “When you criticize my decision to pass the ball rather than run with the ball, you’re criticizing football.”
Imagine hiring a caterer who makes your dinner guests sick and responds to your complaint by saying, “When you attack me for food poisoning, you’re attacking chefs and food preparers everywhere! I am food!”
Earlier in the same interview he referred to his “talent and influence.” That’s one of the biggest tells you’re dealing with a first-rate narcissist. Anytime someone refers to himself in third person while discussing his talents and influence – it’s a sure-fire sign you have a pompous jackass in your midst.
Fauci graded the national response to COVID a B+ and gave “science” an A, whatever that means. After all, he IS science, so naturally. He reminded us again he’s served under many mortal presidents. Yes, presidents are temporary but Fauci is forever.
When asked if he considers resigning, retiring, or leaving his post – he can’t say “never” fast enough. In his mind, the sun won’t rise unless he – science in human form - gets out of bed to make it happen.
That, and he’s paid more than any public official in the country with no expectation of performance or success or general accountability. Nice work if you can get it.
Fauci’s demenor and very word choice is reminiscent of a character so absurd it was once considered only fiction, portrayed by Bill Murray in the iconic roll of pretentious TV weatherman Phil Connors in “Groundhog Day.”
Connors is sent to cover the annual holiday in Punxsutawney with his news crew. He can’t wait to get the job done, get out of town and get on with his very self-important life.
A blizzard rolls through stranding Connors and his news team on the highway. Connors indignantly exits his vehicle and storms up to a highway patrolman who’s closed the interstate.
He protests the road closure over “just a couple of flakes.” The patrolman responds, “There’s a big blizzard moving in. Don’t you listen to the weather?” “I make the weather,” Connors snapped.
Sound familiar?
Later, Connors takes to a pay phone to get a call for help but all phone lines are down. He asks the operator if there’s a special line for emergencies or celebrities declaring himself both “a celebrity in an emergency.”
The entire film is a beautiful tale of the universe punishing the hubris and arrogance of a man, forced to relive the same day over and over again until he learns a better way to live.
Before he does though, he takes full advantage of his abuses of power declaring, “I’m not the God, but I’m a god.” His power is fun for a while, but becomes a kind of empty, unfulfilling torture as the slate was wiped clean each day only to start all over again with nothing to show for the previous day.
Perhaps Fauci will one day learn what Phil Connors ultimately learned about treating people with respect even when they don’t think and behave as he demands. Maybe he’ll recognize the emptiness of his perceived power.
Until then, just like the movie - he’ll keep showing up on TV talking about the latest variant and we’ll keep reliving this conceited bureaucrat’s embarrassingly self-indulgent existence over and over again.
Meanwhile, just as the movie, the rest of us will sit in the audience and laugh at him until he catches on.
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