The Real Reason Republicans Pretend to Be So Concerned About Joe Biden’s Age
HINT: It has absolutely nothing to do with his age.
The profit-driven billionaire-funded corporate media might be guilty of luring people into fretting about President Joe Biden’s age, but the republican party, particularly those in it running to succeed Biden, aren’t really concerned about the president’s age at all, despite all their vociferous bluster. After all, Donald Trump, the one who might likely be their nominee, is only three years younger than Biden.
There is a much more cynical motive behind all the faux pearl clutching over the fact that Biden is the oldest president we’ve had.
If, for some reason, Biden doesn’t finish a term, republicans would have to contend with Kamala Harris in the Oval.
And that’s just a bridge too far for the GOP.
Kamala Harris is a mixed-race female, which, to a republican, means she might as well have horns and eat babies. (Some already believe she does.)
Of course, they can’t come right out and admit that, just like they can’t come right out and admit they’re only in office to serve the morbidly rich and corporations.
So they have to pretend it’s President Biden’s age over which voters should be wringing their hands.
Need proof?
Here’s former South Carolina Gov., Trump administration United Nations ambassador, and GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley earlier this year:
I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris, because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.
That was a warning to America (particularly the swathe of it glued to right-wing hate media) to be worried about the possibility of Kamala Harris ascending to the presidency.
All of this is, of course, part of a larger plan to discredit the most consequential president since Franklin Roosevelt.
Former Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond told CNN recently:
Republicans are a one-trick pony talking about the president’s age. That’s all they talk about. It’s now time to go into campaign mode and talk about the president’s accomplishments because they are great accomplishments. I think that that’s going to prove to be a winning formula once again for all Democrats and for President Biden and Vice-President [Kamala] Harris.
The Biden administration’s accomplishments should speak for themselves, but, sadly, the billionaire-funded corporate media is ignoring them.
Topping the list is creating the American Climate Corps.
Then, of course, we have the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the massive Rooseveltesque landmark legislation that provides the largest investment in history — $385 billion — to fight climate change, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030; lower energy, prescription drug, and health insurance costs; and reduce the federal deficit by requiring a 15% minimum corporate tax rate on companies that report more than $1 billion in profits, and 1% tax on stock buybacks.
Thanks to a key provision in that law, Medicare is now permitted to start negotiating for more affordable pharmaceutical drugs.
The Education Department, upon a directive from the White House, recently started tightening up years of “historical failures” and administrative errors to automatically forgive student loans — totaling $39 billion — for over 800,000 borrowers who have consistently paid 20 or 25 years of their income-driven repayment plans.
Democrats passed and President Biden signed into law the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, a bill designed to expand health care and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals and burn pits.
More than 600 children have been reunited with the families from which they were separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s 2018 “zero tolerance” policy.
The “No Surprises Act,” designed to eliminate surprise bills from health insurance providers for out-of-network care, is now law.
All federal employees and federal contractors must be paid at least $15 per-hour minimum wage.
Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act that, among other things, “requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to establish the Postal Service Health Benefits Program within the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program under which OPM may contract with carriers to offer health benefits plans for USPS employees and retirees.” It also guarantees mail delivery six days per week, and repeals the provisions under the George W. Bush-era Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), requiring the postal service to calculate all its anticipated pension costs for 75 years and set aside five billion dollars per year to cover future employees.
Then there’s “the Safer Communities Act,” the most significant piece of gun safety legislation in 20 years, that includes millions of dollars allocated for mental health, school safety, crisis intervention programs, and incentives for states to incorporate juvenile records into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. It also incentivizes more states to pass “red-flag laws,” designed to permit law enforcement or family members to petition courts for temporary firearm removal if individuals pose potential danger to themselves or others, and extends current laws barring convicted felons and those convicted of domestic violence to abusive dating partners with domestic violence convictions or restraining orders, colloquially referred to as the “boyfriend loophole.” Gun purchasers under age 21 now must undergo expanded background checks. “Ghost guns” are now illegal.
We will finally start manufacturing some technology again in America thanks to the “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) and Science Act” that will “strengthen American manufacturing, supply chains, and national security, and invest in research and development, science and technology, and the workforce of the future to keep the United States the leader in the industries of tomorrow, including nanotechnology, clean energy, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.”
We mustn’t ignore it is the same Joe Biden who was so vehemently opposed to marijuana legalization his entire political career and refused to alter his stance even when running for president, issued federal pardons for thousands of Americans with simple marijuana possession convictions, and announced his administration would be taking steps toward marijuana decriminalization.
Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, codifying into federal law the right to same-sex and interracial marriages anywhere in the country, regardless of where the marriages were performed.
Congress passed an omnibus spending bill that includes a reform to the 1887 Electoral Count Act, an important step in helping prevent a repeat of the attempted coup against our government that occurred January 6, 2021.
In the revised law, the vice president’s role in the counting of presidential electoral votes proceedings is now purely ceremonial. Where previously it only took one House member and one senator to object to a state’s slate of electors, kicking off a potentially days-long debate, the new law raises the threshold for an objection to 20% of each chamber’s members.
Joe Biden nominated and got confirmed the first African American woman to the US Supreme Court.
He rallied our allies in defense of Ukraine against Russia’s unprovoked aggression.
He ended the 20-year illegal war in Afghanistan — the longest in US history.
Let’s not ignore the fact that, due to the prior administration’s negligence and malice, we unnecessarily lost over half a million of our fellow Americans to a plague, and it was the nascent Biden administration that prioritized the vaccine that returned us to a semblance of normalcy.
We are building more factories now than ever before in our history.
Unemployment is at its lowest point in over half a century.
Heaven forbid we should continue this. “Whatever would America become?”
Exactly everything the republican party doesn’t believe in.