You Can't Fight Fascism With a Gerontocracy

The news of Joe Biden's illness and cognitive issues highlights a huge problem in the wider Democratic Party as leaders cling to power in their old age, argues Matt Bernardini

US President Joe Biden, the White House, 7 November 2024. Photo: Al Drago/Sipa US/Alamy

A narcissistic President with a fading mind, surrounded by yes men, and clinging to power, is all over the American news this week. You’d be forgiven for thinking I was talking about Donald Trump. But no, I’m talking about Joe Biden. Whose cognitive issues are front and center again after a new book detailing his mental struggles, and the devastatingly sad news that he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Now I don’t mean to equate the two. Of course Trump exhibits all these same issues one hundred times over. But I do think it is important to address the factions in the Democratic Party that allowed Biden to cling to power, even when they knew he was not as sharp as they were publicly advertising. It’s important because the Democratic party needs to clean out its gerontocracy and embrace new leaders who can handle the more modern and combative form of American politics.

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The Original Sin

For much of 2024, we were told that Biden’s mental acuities were second to none, and that his public slip-ups were just brief incidents that could happen to anyone. Now, we know that was not the case, thanks to a new book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson called Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Outside of the fact that Tapper and CNN have broken with any modicum of journalistic integrity by constantly advertising the new book, there are some significant points to note.

The disastrous debate performance Biden had against Trump was not a one-off. Instead his advisors were worried leading up to it, as Biden apparently would consistently fall asleep during debate prep and couldn’t remember the names of key allies. Yet, it appears that nobody in his inner circle ever had a serious talk with him about not running again. Rather, they evidently encouraged Biden’s view of himself as a historic figure (sound familiar?). He apparently was even under the false belief that polls showed him beating Trump, when none existed. Now, unfortunately, these same advisors who helped cover up Biden’s decline, are discreetly speaking to the media to help launder their reputation.

The takeaway should be that this isn’t a Biden problem, it’s a Democrat problem.

Overshadowed by the Biden announcement was news that Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly died earlier this week at age 75, marking the third Democratic house member to die this year. Reps Sylvester Turner and Raul Grijalva were the other two.