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Ageism is Real. President Joe Biden is Defeating It. [1]
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Date: 2023-06-08
As President Joe Biden wades deeper into the 2024 reelection cesspool, salient questions have arisen concerning his advanced age. At eighty years old, Biden is by far the oldest man or woman to run for America’s most exalted office. Recently, I pored over Joe Biden’s official health summary, published in February, and openly gasped at the sight of it.
As Biden ages, many health problems, the majority of which are currently under treatment, mount. Arthritis of the spine stiffens and constricts his gait, gastrointestinal reflux roils the contents of his stomach after meals, infections inflame his sinus and olfactory areas, and he has recently survived the removal of basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) from his chest. These are formidable health issues to manage, and they represent only a small fraction of the perpetual ailments that Biden stares down every single day.
Despite the barrage of health issues, Joe Biden remains vigorous, vital, and effective. As the forty-sixth President of the United States, he has exhibited a penchant for navigating intricate and complex issues. He has been able to shepherd more than three-hundred pieces of legislation through Congress in a little over two years. A significant number of these accomplishments have been bipartisan, requiring sensitive negotiations with hundreds of antagonistic politicians, individuals who would stop at nothing to deny him a second term.
Americans have responded affirmatively to the elevation of President Biden, as we have created thirteen million new jobs in two years, overcome Covid-19, rebuilt cooperation with our international allies, and beat back threats to our democracy from MAGA politicians. Biden has been integral in bringing about these accomplishments, offering steady leadership, honed by fifty years of experience in government and politics.
Joe Biden is the leader that we need right now, establishing himself as a historical and indispensable head of state at a point in life when most people fade into the periphery of our society. He remains a point of pride for millions of Americans, someone worthy of appreciation and respect.
Recently, Joe Biden successfully negotiated a debt deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, formerly a member of the young guns, a group of ambitious conservative Republicans who stormed the United States Congress during the Obama presidency. However, as years passed, the young guns shed sixty-six percent of its three members, leaving McCarthy as the only remaining member of that jettisoned group.
In the lead-up to the debt ceiling negotiations with Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy often taunted Biden, implying that he would bring “soft food” if only Biden would deign to negotiate with him. The reference to “soft food” was a dig at Biden’s age, garnering titters amongst his despicable Republican retinue.
However, after Biden and McCarthy arrived at a last-minute budget agreement and the details were published, Nancy Mace, a Republican house member from South Carolina, tweeted her displeasure.
“Washington is broken,” wrote Mace. “Republicans got outsmarted by a President who can’t find his pants.”
Mace is forty-five years old, ostensibly an adult. She should have been able to concoct a more dignified and substantive way to criticize the president. Instead, Nancy Mace chose to lash out like an adolescent.
As more details concerning the debt deal trickled into the public media space, more Republicans expressed their outrage. Kevin McCarthy, age fifty-seven, had been outmaneuvered during negotiations by Old Uncle Joe. Conservative Republicans, alacritous purveyors of unfiltered racism and fascism, had expected McCarthy to take a hatchet to the federal budget, cleaving twenty-two percent from annual discretionary spending and rescinding the bulk of Biden’s legislative achievements. Instead, McCarthy extracted meager concessions from Uncle Joe, resembling spindly trims to the budget, details that can be manipulated to reflect the equivalent of “zero” cuts by Shalonda Young, the fabulous Director of Management and Budget.
A majority of political pundits extolled Biden for his deft handling of the budget negotiation process, a fact that was not lost upon the Freedom Caucus, a band of raving conservative Republicans. Their anger grew as the days passed, culminating in their spontaneous revolt against Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the House floor. These individuals joined Democrats in torpedoing a McCarthy legislative priority, embarrassing Mr. McCarthy in the process.
Moreover, Uncle Joe Biden has become a more enlightened and “woke” individual as he has matured. As a young politician, he had been opposed to busing minority youngsters into less diverse neighborhoods, opening himself to pointed criticism by a skeptical Kamala Harris, a black woman and his eventual running mate. As president, Biden has made amends for previous mistakes, engaging in activities that reflect his commitment to a more egalitarian and progressive society. He has nominated more federal judges of color than any other president, nominated the first black female Supreme Court Justice, and signed marriage equality into law. He leads a vibrant Whitehouse staff, employing gay, transgender, and culturally diverse individuals. The number of women serving in his Whitehouse exceeds fifty percent. He has shepherded climate legislation through Congress, the first of its kind.
Biden is a role model for the elderly, proving that you can remain vital and relevant at an advanced age. Ageist Republicans persist with the immature ridicule and invective, motivating Biden to silence the critics. The ultimate rebuke to the doubters and ageists will be Joe Biden’s reelection.
Let’s help Joe Biden get reelected so that he can finish the job.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/8/2174104/-Ageism-is-Real-President-Joe-Biden-is-Defeating-It
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