Even The Nation has joined the circular firing squad against Joe Biden. John Nichols, who I have thought better of as a reporter, wrote a whole long hit piece explaining why Joe Biden can no longer avoid questions about his age. My response — who freaking cares? Even if the special report released on him is right about him being a well-meaning forgetful old man, I’d rather have a well-meaning but forgetful old man at the White House than a president who refuses to accept the election results of elections he loses, who organizes an insurrection to try to stop the certification of his opponent, and who invites Russia to attack NATO.
And at least the well-meaning but forgetful old man has the sense to pick good people around him, which explains why the economy is growing to the tune of 14 million new jobs and is holding up despite the recession worries of old white men writing for other old white men. As a digression, I get that Joe Biden is an old white man. But for being a forgetful old man, he has the sense to pick people of different backgrounds and perspectives, including a Black woman as his vice president, telling me that he is aware of his limitations and is acting accordingly.
I expect this sort of thing from places like the New York Times and the Washington Post, who are supposed to report things like this without fear or favor, whatever the hell that means. But I expect more from places like The Nation, which are not supposed to be beholden to the opinions of old white men writing for other old white men. Or old white men who inherited a lot of money off the backs of Blacks, immigrants, and Native Americans and who run many of the multinational corporations in our country today.
The time to write this sort of piece about Joe Biden was last year, when there was still time for a primary challenger to amass the money and organization to mount a credible challenge. But the Democratic voters have spoken. They are solidly behind Joe Biden for another four years. And replacing him with someone else at this late stage in the game will only alienate swing voters, who will look on someone like Gavin Newsom as someone who didn’t earn his way onto the ticket. That is a good way to hand Trump another four years. These concerns were all vetted and found wanting.
And it’s really interesting that The Nation, which blew off concerns about Bernie Sanders’ age when he is even older than Joe Biden, suddenly start oozing “concern” about Joe Biden’s age now. Especially John Nichols, who was one of Bernie’s biggest boosters.
I’ve seen this phenomena before during the height of the pandemic, when all of a sudden, all these so-called leftist influencers like Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, Kim Iversen, Niko House, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and others started engaging in vaccine denial, fawning over Putin and Assad, and ridiculing public health measures designed to get us all back to work safely. Everybody who purported to be leftist and too pure and holy to vote for Joe Biden, with a few exceptions, wanted to be like the hip, cool, edgy kids who thought it was cool to engage in vaccine denial, kiss and hug with Proud Boys and right-wing Canadian truckers, put boogaloo bois on their shows, and promote the transphobic hatemonger Dave Chapelle. It’s obvious what their game is — sheepdog Bernie Sanders voters disillusioned because their guy lost twice into voting Republican. Is this the route that The Nation wants to go?
Now, I’m seeing it again. All these hip, cool, edgy kids now think it is cool to ooze “concern” about Joe Biden’s age. And now The Nation is joining them. Are they so desperate to sell subscriptions that they are willing to let Donald Trump win in the hope that people will come in droves to subscribe to their publication, like what happened after the 2016 election? The fact that they cut their print publication from every other week to monthly speaks volumes. I get that this is a difficult and challenging time for print publications. But the way out is more quality journalism and more outreach to people, not taking the easy way out by trying to be like the hip, cool, edgy kids who think it is cool to attack Joe Biden for his age. To print something like this is taking the easy way out. I have been following sports for 42 years, and taking the easy way out is a good way to lose games. I have a less polite term for this behavior — it is called bullying.
I’m not saying that the Nation or the New York Times or the Washington Post don’t produce good pieces from time to time. But if an alternative publication like The Nation wants to sell subscriptions, the first thing they need to do is not be like the people they are competing against. That means holding a clear standing of right and wrong, and supporting the 99% against the 1%. And stop freaking acting like Republicans.
If The Nation wishes to survive as a relevant outlet for a good long time to come, the way to do it is not to let Donald Trump win. Donald Trump has already said what he is going to do, given that he believes that the media is the enemy of the people. He has already said he would weaken libel laws so he can sue publications who hurt his feelings. If that happens, what would stop him from going after a publication like The Nation, which doesn’t have the money or the resources like the New York Times, the Washington Post, or CNN, to fight back?
Maybe this is a sore subject for me because I was way ahead of everyone else in certain subjects in school when I was a kid, and the two schools I went to didn’t know what to do with me. They couldn’t believe I could tell time in kindergarten or do 9th grade level math in 3rd grade. So to suggest that older people can’t perform at a high level at 81 is ludicrous. Viktor Korchnoi, a chess grandmaster and world championship contender, performed at a grandmaster level until he was 80 when many people get burned out of chess when they are a fraction of his age. Socrates was sharp and in good health until he was 80, the equivalent of 120 today, and would have lived much longer had he not been forced to take poison by the mob of that day. Pope Francis is 87 years old and still able to travel around the world and govern his church. Bernie Sanders twice ran credible national campaigns when he was older than everybody else and is still a force in the Senate at 82.