So much to unpack here, but since I'm very angry with Biden, I'll start with that.
“…I think the problem with Biden is that he believed in our values but not our power. Whereas Trump believes in our power, but not our values.”
The problem with Biden was ego. He was too old to begin with. I'm two months shy of 78. 78 is not 75, or 70. My husband is 78. My siblings are around the same age. The members of my writing group were around the same age. 78 is old, even a for a person who ages 'well'.
Biden was too old the first time. The second time he and his entourage could not give up power. "I'm the only one who can beat Trump." His refrain. There are very few people in the world, in history, who can say "I'm the only one." There is always someone else.
Biden destroyed the country by insisting on running again. Not for staying too long in the race, but for running, period. We needed an open, vibrant primary with a candidate who could strike a fresh way forward.
Biden cheated us. I cannot forgive him. More than that, I can't forgive the people who persuaded an old, cognitively impaired man that he should struggle to hold onto power.
Sadly, that also applies to Trump. Maybe even more so.
But I don’t really buy that Biden’s cognitively impaired. Other than one disastrous debate, he seems sharp to me. He’s had a speech impediment his entire life. A generation ago he was famous for putting his foot in his mouth.
I made the same excuses for him. What are you comparing him to? He's not sharp. Maybe he can do fine in every day tasks. Not as president. Why do we have such low expectations of our leaders?
Reagan was off his game too. Trump definitely (although he was always a bit off balance). Each one of these men stayed in power because others propped them up.
I don't think, in the free market, competing for an important job without favor, any of them would be hired.
I made the same excuses for him. The debate showed the man. But it wasn't one off. I've seen him slip again, and again. He can't be on sometimes and off sometimes. He's president. He has to be on all the time. He is no sharper than I am, and believe me, I cannot be president.
Yes. I was never a Biden fan. He put his foot in his mouth (not because of stuttering). He plagiarized. He eviscerated Anita Hill. He helped to launch mass incarceration.
I was still going to vote for him, until the debate. Then I had no one to vote for. I donated to the Harris campaign. I was willing to do anything to keep Trump out. But the man who was at that debate (Biden) was not someone I could vote for. That would have been unethical, in my view.
Of course, you and I can disagree on this, because we are civil, rational, courteous people. Can't disagree with a lot of people because the age of civility and rationalism seems to have passed.
I enjoy your posts very much, although sometimes what I read gets under my skin :)
I'd like to edit this comment: Biden knows more than I do about policy and government. In that sense, he's smarter than I am. But he's not sharp. He doesn't think in the moment. He doesn't have fluency of thought. That's what I'm addressing. That's what a leader needs, I believe.