Anyone who watched the debate last Thursday between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump surely has a variety of words to describe it. Mine are sad, pathetic, hopeless and frightening. And those are the highlight adjectives!
I didn’t see it. I had to do some writing and other work on my personal computer. Plus, my genitals needed some extra attention, and I just couldn’t ignore them to watch two cantankerous old men exchange pithy barbs. One good feature about the debate is that the microphone for whichever of the two candidates not speaking was muted. I know that was incorporated strictly after the fiasco of the first Trump-Biden debate in 2020 – the one where a frustrated Biden blurted to Trump, “Would you shut up, man!”
If only both men could be muted now, I think we’d all be better off. Americans – and people across the globe – pretty much know where they stand on particular issues. Or where they don’t stand.
I recall the questions surrounding the health of Ronald Reagan when he ran for president in 1980; he was 69 at the time, and the voting populace (along with the media) verbalized their concerns about his welfare. For the most part, seniority is respected and appreciated in certain fields. Politics isn’t necessarily one of them, but experience does hold a certain value. Reagan made the most of his age, even joking about it on occasion. He held the distinction of being the oldest president until Trump. In November of 2022, Biden crossed a new threshold when he became the nation’s first octogenarian Chief Executive. And here we are.
I’ve always said the Democratic Party’s biggest mistake in the 2020 election cycle was to let Biden and Bernie Sanders run for president. After leaving the White House as vice-president in 2017, I feel that Biden should have retired into the realm of a senior statesman; giving speeches, writing books and propagating democracy every reasonable chance he had. The Democrats began the 2020 campaign with the most diverse collection of candidates, including more women than had ever attempted to run for president at one time and an openly queer man in their ranks. Then they ended up just like the Republican Party – with two old White men at the top, Biden and Sanders. Of course, one of those Democratic candidates, Kamala Harris, has become the nation’s first female and non-White vice-president, and another, Pete Buttigieg, has become the first openly queer cabinet official.
Like many people, I’d often mock older individuals in my youth. Now I’m 60 and I know how that feels. I don’t consider myself “old” in the traditional sense; my body has definitely aged, but I won’t let my mind collapse into senility. But even I know this nation is in trouble with the likes of Biden and Trump as the primary presidential candidates. And yes, it is because of their age.
The U.S. is rapidly approaching the 250th anniversary of its official birth as a nation. Right now the future just doesn’t look too bright for us.
Chief Writing Wolf 
We now know Reagan was in early stage dementia and his inner circle hid it well. As for Biden, he should have run instead of Clinton, but Obama talked him into letting her have a go. Big mistake.
Biden met with his big money donors today. Wonder what they told him?