I’m not going to recount all the pundits performing being aghast at Biden’s “poor performance” in the Presidential debate last week. It’s well-tread territory. But here are just a few choice “observations” from the CNN punditry:
John King: “There is a deep and a wide and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic party [. . .] Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God what do we do about this?”
Van Jones: “That was painful [. . .] He didn’t do well at all [. . .] He had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base, and he failed to do that.”
Abby Phillip: “Biden’s answers, in a lot of cases, were not coherent.”
Here is the big I can’t believe it!! performance on CNN from right after the debate:
And here’s just a small sampling of the headlines and op-eds that came in the days after:
And here’s what I have to say on the matter: No shit.
And I’d follow that up with: F-U, mainstream media.
Here’s what you’ve been saying for at least the past year:
It’s not that Biden turned in a “weak performance.” It’s that he is unfit. He is unaware of where he is or even what he is saying, often times. And this didn’t just happen last Thursday for the first time.
And the thing is, all these media folks knew it. Everyone knew it.
For anyone with eyes and ears, we’ve seen it for a few years now. And Biden’s confusion and feebleness have been accelerating. It just keeps getting worse. And it’s not ageist to say so. Just like it isn’t ageist to take your dad’s car keys away when you know it’s not safe for him to drive. Not safe for him. Or pedestrians. Or other drivers, pets, telephone poles, cyclists, and on and on.
But if you dared bring up that Biden was clearly losing his mental faculties, you were smeared as ageist, ableist, MAGA, alt-right you just want to get Trump elected INSURRECTIONIST blah blah scream scream shout (lie) scream some more.
Every press outlet from The New York Times to CNN to The Washington Post said “What? Biden is fine! You’re the worst!” and the people repeated it in unison.
Until they just couldn’t do it anymore. Because the lie became too obvious.
This is the standard playbook of the Left. It is exactly what they did during covid as well. And they do it with men competing in women’s sports (What advantage? Transwomen are women!); defund the police; BLM “rallies” in the summer of 2020 (“mostly peaceful protests”). It goes on.
You’re a terrible person for pointing out what is patently obvious. You are disloyal to the Party and must be punished. We will do so by calling you career-destroying names. Anyone else even thinking of saying out loud what is obviously true — you will be smeared as well. So you best stay quiet and/or follow the script. To save democracy!
No. Observing material reality is not alt-right. Or Q-Anon. Or bigoted. It doesn’t make you a Nazi or a fascist. Or a Christian nationalist. Or a bad person of any variety.
It is simply sane.
No, Biden is not and was not “sharp as a tack”; this version of Biden is not the “best Biden ever.” Morning Joe is either impaired himself or lying through his teeth. Neither comforts me.
My own parents are in their 80s and, I should say, in far better mental shape than Biden. By a long shot. But I wouldn’t recommend either for public office. And I don’t think either one would feel comfortable taking my 7-year-old to the playground alone.
But the signal has been sent that it is ok to notice now that Biden is unwell because he is just too unwell to cover it up any longer. What did they think was going to happen??!!! This was inevitable! But the Party-faithful, which includes many members of the mainstream media, just kept kicking the can down the road thinking they’d just keep covering for him and they did actually, to a point, believe their own lies. They are true cultists.
And it is also ok to notice now that children are struggling from the harms of prolonged school closures. This just yesterday in The New York Times:
And on this subject, again, I’d say No shit, and F-U.
For the screeching, blindly devoted Democrats who have pledged fealty to the party and who never stop with the BUT DEMOCRACY IS AT STAKE!! (and we need to violate every democratic principle to save democracy) . . . and this includes Bill Maher who has been fond of saying he’d vote for Biden’s head in a jar of blue liquid (though, on this, I think he’s finally changed his mind) . . . here’s what I’d have to say:
It is a subversion of democracy to put a candidate forward who is incapable of governing. That person isn’t governing. And won’t be governing. Some unknown cohort of party apparatchiks and/or Jill Biden is. We did not elect them or her. That is not democracy. But this is what the Democrat party has done.
Putting this candidate forward and insisting he is and was fine when he clearly was not, having voters select him, then hot-swapping at the last minute via the electoral college, is a subversion of the democratic principles of our republic. This is not representative government. This is not a free and fair election. This is a swindle.
I will hold fast to the firm belief until the day I die that nothing was a greater subversion of our democracy than locking us in our homes, telling us who could enter our homes, who we could see and not see, closing churches and synagogues and other places of worship, closing public schools, disallowing the operation of businesses, preventing people from earning a living to support their families, making it illegal to gather and protest and don’t even get me started on the censorship and suppression of speech. And this was all done by decree, not legislation. And it was done, almost exclusively, by Democrats in blue cities and states. A society run by edict is not a free society. It’s an authoritarian regime.
Silencing voices and views from one side only — regular citizens, doctors, businesses (like my own brand being banned from advertising on Tik Tok) — is not a society wherein a culture of free speech is upheld. It is one where the only “acceptable” view is coerced. It is manufacturing consensus. It is what happens in China.
A media apparatus that lies to support the regime and furthers one party’s PR narratives is not a free press. It’s a propaganda machine.
After covid, am I surprised that the Democratic Party would engage in such undemocratic practices? No. But I continue to be surprised that so many go along and perceive the only real risk to be elsewhere (ahem, starts with a T and ends with an “ump”).
I don’t know what’s worse: a “hot swap” at the convention — foisting a candidate that was not elected by the people on the people; or forcing an incoherent, possibly incontinent, and severely impaired candidate on us that is not the one actually in charge at all. And one who will likely die in the not too distant future. Because he seems far down the path of dementia and it only goes one way — and faster — from here.
How could any sane person trust any candidate the Dems put forward at this point? And please not Gavin. Not Gavin! How could any sentient human believe anything they say at this point when they’ve clearly been lying for years about Biden’s competence?
I can’t believe Americans are willing to go along with this overwrought performance of democracy put on by the Dems.
This is not consent of the governed. This is a democracy in crisis.
I know, I shouldn’t be surprised after everything that happened during covid.
And yet, I still am.
I still am.
If the Dems swap Biden for Newsom, I pray Americans are smart enough to see all the damage he’s done to California and overwhelmingly vote for his rival.
But isn’t this exactly what
they’ve been doing for years over every issue? They lie, gaslight, manipulate, bully and have a holier than thou attitude.
Democrat - Chopping bits off children is not child abuse. It’s for their own good. If you try to stop us from chopping up our own children, we will prosecute you and send you to prison for 10 years.
Normal person - it’s child abuse, now fuck off!
Democrat - Islamists are lovely people who are simply downtrodden and share our values. They need support.
Normal person - they have spent the last 50 years trying to kill us and are now infiltrating our democratic processes so they can kill more of us, now fuck off!
Democrat - Biden is a spring chicken and is in his prime. These are his salad days and anything you’ve seen or heard to the contrary is ‘cheap fake’.
Normal person - just fuck right off!
I could go on, but the list is endless.