Age Is Just a Number

I can stay young 'til I die

While the least qualified person ever to inhabit the White House is in court for his fraud trial (one of six ongoing cases—criminal and civil—in which he’s the defendant), I wanted to underscore two things being covered in the media that are helping to shape the context in which Donald is running for the Republican nomination.

First, in a shocking move, President Biden has decided to continue growing older.

[Insert endless screaming emoji here.]

Given the fact that the corporate media report incessantly on voters’ discontent vis-à-vis Biden’s age, I’ve been wondering—did people think Biden was going to get younger? Or did they intend for him to serve only one term during the most fraught moment in modern American politics?

The only reason I can think of for the constant reminders of Biden’s age (a subject that seems never to come up in discussions about Donald’s candidacy even though he is 77 years old)) is, as I wrote the other day, that there is practically nothing else with which to attack Biden (certainly nothing on par with all of Donald’s high crimes and misdemeanors). The media, if nothing else, deeply invested in the horse race.

Biden is 80. We knew four years ago that he’d be four years older when he ran for re-election in 2024. (At least I think that’s how aging and arithmetic work.) Do I wish President Biden were younger? Of course. I imagine he does, too. I wish I were younger—especially since the last seven years have felt like thirty. But if the question about Biden’s age keeps getting asked, then we need to respond consistently with a simple answer: “If Biden is old, so is Donald.”

2024 will almost certainly be a rematch between these two. So, we need to asking questions about their respective fitness for office. Would you rather have a competent, pro-democracy incumbent running the country? Or, would you rather throw the keys back to an incompetent fascist who’s itching to become an autocrat with the power to wreak vengeance upon his enemies, and destroy the Western alliance along with the tenets of liberal democracy upon which it’s based?

Tough call.

Just say no to these polls

Or is it? Because according to a Washington Post / ABC News poll released ten days ago, it isn’t even close—Donald leads Biden by 9 points. I know this is old news and the poll isn’t legitimate. Even The Post acknowledged, after the fact, that the poll is an “outlier,” (a euphemistic, ass-covering way of saying its methodology is flawed).

The findings, which are obviously bullshit, aren’t what’s alarming, it’s the fact that they were published at all. What was the actual purpose? Any poll showing either Donald or Biden leading by over 10 points—13 months out from the election and given the recent voting history of the American electorate—is useless.

One takeaway is that the media is deeply invested in making sure Donald is the Republican nominee. By conducting this poll and phrasing the questions the way they did, ABC News and The Washington Post essentially crowned Donald the Republican presidential nominee four months before the first Republican primary in Iowa on January 15, 2024.

The success or failure of the other nominees, whether they had a shot at the nomination or not, has been totally pre-determined by the media’s obvious choice. They downplay or ignore the four indictments and 91 criminal charges facing Donald; they give him massive amounts of free airtime which he does not have to share with the other candidates; and they allow him to lie, obfuscate, and project without any meaningful oversight, pushback or fact-checking.

Corporate media are essentially short-circuiting the campaigns of any Republican not named Donald Trump. This is contrary to journalistic neutrality and a clear signal that the media is, once again, putting a thumb on the scale for Donald Trump.

___

The results of other polls tell us that up to half of Democrats would prefer the 2024 Democratic nominee to be somebody other than Joe Biden. How do we know this? Because the question is being asked. But what do “preferences” tell us about anything? I preferred several candidates over Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary but happily voted for him in the general election. No serious Democrat who “prefers” some theoretical other Democrat in the primary is going to vote for Donald Trump—or any of the current crop of Republicans running for the Republican nomination—for president.

Biden is leading his opponents for the Democratic nomination by a much greater margin than Donald is leading hisopponents in the Republican primary. It’s just that nobody bothers to mention that.

BONUS QUIZ

Last month, to prove his mental fitness, Donald recently challenged President Biden, 300-year-old Rupert Murdoch, and others to a duel of sorts. Part One will consist of all participants taking the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the test that Donald “aced” back in 2018.

Part Two, will be a still-to-be-determined but no doubt grueling physical challenge like—driving a golf cart?

Here’s the test. I wish you the best of luck.

---

BONUS TRACK

“Here is a secret I never have told

Maybe you'll understand why

I believe if I refuse to grow old

I can stay young till I die.”

“No Time at All,” Pippin (By the great Stephen Schwartz)