Stop with the Ageism

Posted on January 9, 2024

The whole idea of fighting bigotry is that people should be judged on their individual characteristics not their group, such as race, religion, sex, or gender identity. And yet, Joe Biden is almost universally faulted because of his age.

First, get a grip on reality. The next President is Biden or Trump. No other candidates can possibly win the major parties’ nominations and no third-party candidate stands a chance. To think otherwise is delusional.

Biden will be 81 in November and Trump will be 78; that’s not much difference. According to the Social Security Administration, the average life expectancy for an 81-year-old man is 7.25 years and for a 78-year-old man it’s 8.77 years. So, on average, either one would survive a 4-year term and then some.

But what about the individuals? Biden is 6 feet tall and weighs 178 lbs. Trump won’t disclose his height and weight but his New York driver’s license says he’s 6’2” and, in 2018, his doctor said he was 239 lbs.—and he hasn’t gotten any thinner. Physically, Biden is in much better shape than Trump. The only reason people seem to think Biden’s markedly older is that he wears his hair naturally gray while Trump dyes his hair and face an unnatural yellow. It’s just makeup.

Mentally, people complain that Biden flubs his lines. But Biden has and always had a stutter. It is simply not a sign of diminished mental capacity. Trump, on the other hand, is in a substantial mental decline according to everyone who has dealt with him, including his former top White House staff. All you have to do is listen when he speaks without a script—he can’t form sentences or express ideas.

It’s astonishing. Between Biden and Trump, it is Biden who is faulted for his age? That’s absurd! Let’s, for once, judge Joe Biden on his own successes and failures.

  • Biden is the most experienced President ever in history, previously serving 36 years as a United States Senator and 8 years as Vice President before serving 3+ years as President.
  • So far, in less than three years, Biden has created 14.3 million jobs. Obama and Clinton created 33.8 million jobs over 16 years. In contrast, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump combined created only 1.9 million jobs in 16 years.
  • The unemployment rate under Biden, now 3.7 percent, is among the lowest over the past half-century. There are 1.3 job openings for every unemployed person.
  • Inflation is now only 3.1 percent over the past 12 months; groceries have risen only 1.7 percent over the past year.
  • Our nation’s GDP growth has been the strongest among all the G7 nations, the U.S. stock market is at an all-time high, and there is no recession on the horizon.
  • The federal deficit is trillions of dollars lower than when Trump was President.

On the bad side, Biden once fell off his bicycle and Democrats grumble about him to pollsters. Maybe he should put shoe polish on his hair?

 

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