There is something profoundly modern about a man who can manage to be entirely missing and yet universally present, provided the territory in question is the New York Stock Exchange.
Consider the curious case of New Jersey Representative Tom Kean Jr., a gentleman who has elevated the art of the French exit to a federal level. He has been quite beautifully absent from the halls of Congress, accumulating a tidy stack of nearly ninety missed votes while wrapped in the silk shroud of a “personal health matter.” One could easily find it in their heart to send a lovely bouquet of lilies and a get-well card, were it not for the fascinating behavior of his right index finger. While his physical form remains a matter of pure conjecture to his colleagues and constituents, his electronic signature continues to materialize on financial disclosure forms with the crisp, rhythmic punctuality of a Swiss clock. He cannot manage to cast a vote on the future of the republic, but by God, he can authorize a trade in corporate equities.
It is an exquisite little vignette of our times: the ghostly legislator, slipping through the shadows of San Francisco and Las Vegas, leaving behind nothing but a trail of corporate dividends and a cloud of rideshare receipts. It appears the modern congressional oath is no longer a pledge to the public good, but a soft-handed promise to one’s broker.
And so, the gentleman from New Jersey continues his silent, profitable cruise through the stratosphere, a perfect symbol of the 119th Congress. He is the ultimate citizen of the corporate state: perfectly unburdened by the tedious duties of representative democracy, entirely unapproachable by the common herd, yet deeply, beautifully connected to the stock market. We must admire the sheer economy of it. Why bother with the messy business of governance when there are April trades to disclose and an empire of algorithms to protect?