One of my paternal great-grandparents lived to be 101. I couldn’t have been more than twelve or so when he died. He still drove up until he was 98, when he voluntarily surrendered his license due to eye problems.
I remember playing in his apartment, I think it was. He set up dominoes as a hobby, which was really cool to me. I thought he was pretty amazing, and still do. It’s a point of pride to me that one of my extended family members was a centenarian. I decided that I wanted to live at least as long as he did and preferably longer, as long as I can be active and healthy.
What does this have to do with Joe Biden? Not a whole lot. I know better than to assume that because my great grandfather was in full possession of his mental faculties for pretty much all his life, that it applies to any other person getting up there in age.
I firmly and wholeheartedly respect older people who can still go out and do stuff as they get into the twilight of their lives. My dad is nearly 80; he still drives and is in full possession of his physical and mental faculties. He still works, for that matter. Again, I know better than to make any assumptions there regarding other people in that age range.
I’m not in any position to know what Joe Biden’s health or mental facilities are like, or anything like that. But that’s true of all of the people saying that they think he’s too old. Why should I believe the ones who are certain that they’re right, when they don’t have any more first-hand information than I do? Why should I believe the ones who are fully prepared to put him out to pasture because he had a bad debate night with a serial liar who’s basically pledged to turn this country into a living hell? And especially why should I believe the ones who are perfectly happy to throw us into chaos and turn the country over to the convicted felon if it means they get to pad their bank accounts some more?
I can’t tell you what to believe, only what I believe. And I’ve said it before, I believe in Joe Biden. More to the point, I believe in his family and those he is close to. This whole mess has to have been a huge scare for all of them. You think you felt bad watching him? Imagine how his family felt (what’s left of them), and his friends, watching him that night.
And yet none of them have so much as uttered a peep about him not being up to the job. I’m sure they talked with him afterwards. They no doubt wanted to make sure he was okay. And they know him better than any of us possibly could. I don’t doubt that if they felt that he wasn’t up to the rigors of the rest of the campaign and the next four years, that they would have told him so and kept telling him so until he listened.
In any case, it’s not our decision if he keeps running. Assuming he keeps running, our decision is whether we want him or the horribly vicious 78 year old who’ll tear the guts out of this country. I believe most of the people arguing about this here will agree that if it comes to that choice, that there’s no contest.
I also believe that most of us are arguing from the same basic viewpoint — we really, really, really don’t want to lose our democracy to the likes of the convicted felon Trump. And we're all even using the same basic evidence. What’s different is that some of us think that if Biden steps down, that we’re well on our way to losing the election, while others think that will happen if Biden stays in.
But the thing is, none of us know for sure. We’re all predicting what we think is most likely to happen, but none of us have a way to see the future that will happen. So instead of continuing this sitewide pie fight, how about we agree that we all want the Democrats to win, and to work towards that end, which is well within our means. I mean, none of us is in a position to decide whether he’ll stay in or quit, so why waste time trying to browbeat other people into changing their minds on which they’d prefer when you could use that time to help get people to vote?