Mitch McConnell’s office finally released a hospital photo after weeks of silence, yet the image only fueled fresh doubts among his own GOP colleagues. That distrust is no accident. Decades of centralized power and selective transparency have left even allies unwilling to take the Senate’s old guard at its word, weakening Republican cohesion at a moment when clarity on leadership matters most. The Constitution presumes public servants remain accountable to the electorate and their peers, not shielded by institutional inertia. When leaders evade basic scrutiny, they erode the consent that legitimizes their authority and invite the very skepticism the founders expected citizens to exercise against concentrated influence. Republicans cannot restore limited government while tolerating unaccountable figures at the top.