There is no end of commentary gently — and not so gently —
urging President Joe Biden to act his age and step aside. And all else being equal,
I share that sentiment. I do not think we want a president ending his second
term closer to 90 than he is to 80. But all else is never equal. And the
commentaries that focus solely on Biden’s central weakness — his age — are
missing his mounting strengths.
اضافة اعلان
One reason for my hesitance to declare Biden too old to run in
2024 is that I thought his age was a problem in 2020, too. Everything people say
about his age now was true then. He was halting on the stump. He fumbled words
and phrases. But I would argue the problem was worse then.
The linguistic stumbles were paired with an aging outlook. Biden
reminisced fondly about his relationships with segregationist senators and
seemed to think the bipartisanship of yesteryear was recoverable in the
present. He wielded his connection to Barack Obama as both spear and shield; it
was the case for his candidacy and his all-purpose defense against attacks. But
Biden was not Obama, and the Senate of the 1970s is long gone. Biden’s problem
in 2020, in other words, was not just his age. It was that he seemed stuck in
the past.
Biden’s problem in 2020, in other words, was not just his age. It was that he seemed stuck in the past.
But Biden proved — and keeps proving — doubters like me wrong.
He won the Democratic primary, even though voters had no shortage of fresher
faces to choose from. He won the general election handily, despite Donald
Trump’s vaunted talents as an insult comic and a social media force. Voters
seemed perfectly happy with Biden as a communicator.
Campaigns are a (lengthy) sprint. But governing is a marathon.
Last year, as Biden’s agenda languished, I found myself worried about his vigor
again. Perhaps a younger, more energetic Biden would have proved better at
managing relationships in the Senate. But then he passed a flurry of major
bills — the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act — that amounted
to a remarkable legislative record given the narrowness of Democrats’
congressional majorities. His party defied expectations in the midterm
elections, gaining a bit more power in the Senate and holding losses down in
the House. His State of the Union address was widely regarded as a success. At
some point, those of us who keep declaring Biden too old to do the job need to
reckon with what we have missed until now and might still be missing.
So let me give it a try: Members of my profession have built our
lives around our mastery of words, and so we overestimate the importance of
eloquence. We like politicians who speak as if Aaron Sorkin is cranking out
their dialogue. But voters do not see malapropisms and run-on sentences and
unfinished thoughts and occasional fabulism as the disqualifiers that we do.
Ronald Reagan proved that, and George W. Bush proved it again; then Trump tried
to teach us the same lesson, and now Biden is taking his turn.
And Biden’s age has carried some quiet benefits. One is that he
has deftly bridged Democrats’ generational and demographic gaps. The Democratic
Party has in recent years become younger, more liberal, more educated, and more
online. Biden’s politics were formed in a past era, when blue-collar workers
were still a core constituency, and liberal was often an epithet.
When Biden was younger and more combative, he might have sought
to vanquish the left wing of his own party. Instead, he’s welcomed them in and
run an administration that has achieved something of a synthesis. Much of
Biden’s staff comes from the party’s younger, more liberal wing. His core group
of senior advisers is made up of longtime loyalists, forged in the same era he
was.
Age has also brought Biden, perhaps out of necessity, a sense of
restraint. He does not delight in the sound of his own voice as he once did. He
leaves space for others — in particular, Republicans — to reveal themselves to
voters. We are used to politicians who always want to be the center of
attention. But that carries costs. Frances Lee, a political scientist at
Princeton, has shown that when presidents take strong positions on issues, they
generate enormous backlash to the positions they take. Biden’s relative quiet
is perhaps why his policy agenda has remained more popular than he is and why
there was so much room for voters to focus on the dangers of Republicans in the
midterms.
The Democratic Party has in recent years become younger, more liberal, more educated, and more online. Biden’s politics were formed in a past era, when blue-collar workers were still a core constituency, and liberal was often an epithet.
Then there is what Biden will have in 2024 that he did not have
in 2020: a record of his own. He has passed the largest infrastructure,
climate, science, and technology investments in a generation. Unemployment is
3.4 percent — its lowest level since 1969. Inflation is coming down. (I think
Biden’s 2024 chances will revolve around whether the labor market remains tight
as inflation ebbs more than they will revolve around his age.) He has rallied a
steady coalition against Russia and helped Ukraine keep its resistance alive.
He has turned Trump’s inchoate anger toward China into a suite of policies to
make America and its allies less dependent on Chinese manufacturing and to
actively slow China’s technological progress. Biden hasn’t gotten any younger,
but he has a purchase on the present and an argument about the future that he
didn’t have in 2020 — and one that no other Democrat (or Republican) has now.
Typically, columns end on a point of certainty. Let me instead
end on a point of uncertainty. Age or accident could fell Biden tomorrow. I
could say that this is true for any of us, and it is, but the actuarial tables
darken in one’s mid-80s, and there is no sense pretending otherwise. I too
worry about how Biden will match up against a younger, more vigorous Republican
than Trump. But there is a strength and purpose and substance to the reelection
campaign he could run in 2024 that was absent in 2020. And I have
underestimated Biden before. Age matters, but so, as Biden keeps showing, does
much else.
Read more Opinion and Analysis
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
