Current Events > Questions about Biden's age are missing the point

(+) Yeah! (+)

... Michelle Goldberg at the New York Times today wrote a piece subtly titled, Joe Biden Is Too Old to Be President Again. In it, she hand-wrings and flatters Biden, but ultimately determines his problem is that he's too old to be a viable Democratic nominee in 2024. Citing a recent poll showing 64 percent of Democrats think Biden shouldnt run again due to his age, Goldberg insists Biden should step down and announce hell be a one-term president.

Goldberg is not alone: Increasingly the Democratic Partys horrible poll numbers and gloomy prospect for the midterms and beyond are being chalked up to too many old-timers running the Party. But, as I read more and more of these takes, its becoming clear this line of argument, while superficially attractive, obscures more than it elucidates. To wit, at the close of her piece, Goldberg clearly shows how little she understand the nature of the problem, writing:

"There are plenty of possibilities: If Vice President Kamala Harriss approval ratings remain underwater, Democrats have a number of charismatic governors and senators they can turn to. Biden said, during the 2020 campaign, that he wanted to be a bridge to a new generation of Democrats. Soon it will be time to cross it."

This mentality, that Democrats can just plug in any charismatic governors and senator and have a better show at winning in 2024, is the exact thinking that got us into a situation where were 28 months away from a full-blown Republican takeover of every major political institution. It shows theres little interest in building a sustainable or robust political coalition, or creating bigger moral narratives to counter the Rights dark vision of nonstop attack on trans people, education, black activists, and immigrants. The goal is to simply survive, hoping to effectively trick the electorate into delivering you 50.0001 percent of electors because a candidate has a winning smile and a beautiful family.

In her analysis, Goldberg makes zero mention of bill failures, ideological incoherence, corporate interests constraining policy options, unpopular austerity, and a failure to deliver on major promises. No, its just that Bidens old.

If we cannot properly name the problem, we have no chance of solving it.
...
Other pundits than Michelle Goldberg, of course, have been making the argument Biden is too old. Even some on the progressive wing of the Party. And, on an intuitive level, one can see the appeal: It vaguely seems true. But there are institutional incentives, as evidenced by the focus on age by Party hatchet people like Goldberg, to turn the conversation into one of The Lame Olds, rather than ideology. Indeed, as @wideofthepost noted, the young voters who are abandoning Biden in swaths are not citing his age, but his policies, for doing so. Its the eldest demographic of voters most concerned with Bidens geriatric properties.
https://twitter.com/wideofthepost/status/1546465940879056897

The reason this explanation may be attractive to some is theres likely a correlation, even if they have the causation backwards. To the extent gerontocracy is an issue, its the logical byproduct of conservative, neoliberal capture of our politics, not the cause of it. Put simply: It makes perfect sense that those in the Democratic Party who most dutifully serve the donor base, punch left, lower expectations, ignore activists, dote on Israel, shred any faint remanence of ideological commitment, and embrace liberal imperialist conventional wisdom, more broadly, would be far less likely to get weeded out, lose elections, or get primaried. It makes sense, then, that those least willing or incentivized to tackle existential problems of climate change, inequality, systematic racism, and the corruption of federal courts would be the most likely to simply stick around. But, as I noted last week, simply replacing neoliberal dinosaurs who outlasted their more ideological, left-wing colleagues with a young whippersnapper from the increasingly deep bench of conservative Democrats brought up from McKinsey or spooksville wont do much to address the fundamental issue that the Democrats have no coherent message and are hostile to class politics.

https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/discussions-of-bidens-age-are-a-distraction

dude is like a walking corpse.

and yes, i know he's a better option than "you know who" but still... lol

I don't think it's so much the number, but that he seems to be succumbing to the effects of age. Bernie stills seems to still be mentally sharp.

It's not really about his age but his mental state. There's plenty of people his age that are still sound mentally.

I remember Joe Biden when he was sharp and alert, what we see now is a shell of what he used to be and it's worrying honestly.

Vyrulisse posted...

It's not really about his age but his mental state. There's plenty of people his age that are still sound mentally.

I remember Joe Biden when he was sharp and alert, what we see now is a shell of what he used to be and it's worrying honestly.

did you read the post

I think the problem is Joe is just and has always been a shitty politician. A relic from an age where politicians like him were relevant.

Also would love to know who all these charismatic governors and senators they could roll out to take over because I can think of maybe one or two viable candidates myself

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

and yes, i know he's a better option than "you know who" but still... lol

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/7/6/AAEhCpAADcpg.jpg

MaxEffingBemis posted...

I think the problem is Joe is just and has always been a shitty politician. A relic from an age where politicians like him were relevant.

Also would love to know who all these charismatic governors and senators they could roll out to take over because I can think of maybe one or two viable candidates myself

I'm pretty positive AOC is the only person they have who can stand up to Trump's weird cult, at the polls. And she'll never get it because the establishment democrats hate her guts.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

I'm pretty positive AOC is the only person they have who can stand up to Trump's weird cult, at the polls. And she'll never get it because the establishment democrats hate her guts.

They need someone that can "talk to the youth" of America, kind of in the same way Bill Clinton was able to "talk to Black America" and basically come out of nowhere to win in 1992. 92 was originally shaping up to be a 2 man race between Bush and Perot, as there was little confidence that the Democratic nominees like Gore, Bill Bradley, Gephardt, etc were not exciting anyone.

Dems need someone like that again. Someone that talks like a "regular person" and can speak to the 30 and under crowd, as well as keep the 30 and over crowd that voted for Biden.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

I'm pretty positive AOC is the only person they have who can stand up to Trump's weird cult, at the polls. And she'll never get it because the establishment democrats hate her guts.

I kind of disagree but she is one of the few politicians to have come out with actual ideas to protect abortion rights and dem leadership is desperate for someone with ideas

bigblu89 posted...

They need someone that can "talk to the youth" of America, kind of in the same way Bill Clinton was able to "talk to Black America" and basically come out of nowhere to win in 1992. 92 was originally shaping up to be a 2 man race between Bush and Perot, as there was little confidence that the Democratic nominees like Gore, Bill Bradley, Gephardt, etc were not exciting anyone.

Dems need someone like that again. Someone that talks like a "regular person" and can speak to the 30 and under crowd, as well as keep the 30 and over crowd that voted for Biden.

Who? Name names. Who has an ideological program with broad-based appeal who isn't hated by the Democratic establishment or its donor/consultant sphere and is also charismatic? It's literally impossible for a candidate to check all those boxes, FYI.

And won't sell core constituencies down the river and give up on all the good parts of their platform, like Clinton did.

ElatedVenusaur posted...

Who? Name names. Who has an ideological program with broad-based appeal who isn't hated by the Democratic establishment or its donor/consultant sphere and is also charismatic?

Willie Nelson, but he's even older than Biden.

Sure, but still get the old farts out of our government

Age doesn't bother me. It's the fact that Biden is basically just a Republican that isn't outwardly racist

ElatedVenusaur posted...

Who? Name names. Who has an ideological program with broad-based appeal who isn't hated by the Democratic establishment or its donor/consultant sphere and is also charismatic? It's literally impossible for a candidate to check all those boxes, FYI.

And won't sell core constituencies down the river and give up on all the good parts of their platform, like Clinton did.

Didn't say I know the answer. I'm just saying that's why they need.

I'm honestly not into politics enough to be able to name names, and even if I was, whoever I named would have their flaws as well.

It's going to be so weird if Biden gets another term and finishes it then dies like a year later of old age. Like, "last year's president died of natural causes" headlines.

Stop saying he's too old or mentally losing it or ineffectual or out of touch. That's just his stutter!

Lotta people missing the point ITT

Antifar posted...

Lotta people missing the point ITT

I'm not sure if anyone has even read the article.

i too have a question about biden's age

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I dont think people missed the point. But that particular NYT article is about his age. Nowhere does it mention that its the ONLY or BIGGEST factor, just that its a factor.

They are not allowed to name that problem. The media isn't owned by working class people so they will never hire anyone that will name that problem. The DNC's donors will never allow anyone into Dem leadership that would name that problem.

And Democrat primary voters exclusively listen to cable news and Dem leadership on who to vote for in the Dem primary. So naming this problem on twitter isn't going to reach them. It's probably not even possible to reach them. You have to beat them, but idk how because we've had decades of the same stale demographic owning the primary no matter what.

I need to start planning a path out sooner rather than later

I don't get what their point is in the article.

Some lady wrote something based on a poll and titled it something like People Think Biden is Too Old.
Then this person goes into the data and writes an article saying we are missing the point somehow.
How?

The number one answer is age. By a single percentage point.

The second article talks about how the first one doesn't mention the other reasons they don't want him to run which are also listed. And that's a fair point. The first article just took the top picked option and made an article only about that.

But it doesn't change the fact that the number 1 reason people don't want him to run again is age.

What I find interesting about looking at that poll is how it's the old people that care about his age. The younger people don't like him because he isn't far left enough.