Those who didn’t watch the debate performance last Thursday night still have a chance of blissful ignorance that the President of the United States is not an escaped hospice patient suffering from advanced senility. The rest of us, however, can harbor no more delusions about Joe Biden’s mental faculties. There is a power vacuum at the head of our country, and that was on full display on Thursday night.
Conservative media has been saying for years that Biden is unwell, is fading fast, and is not in charge of the country. These claims and accusations were met with derision by the mainstream and liberal counterparts. Recently, when Biden was seen wandering off or being led by the hand after getting lost, Democrats and the media labeled these videos “cheapfakes,” claiming that what you were seeing with your own eyes simply wasn’t true.
Now it’s obvious that the public was being lied to, and the pundits who have been lying had to pretend to be shocked and dismayed by the debate performance. Joe Scarborough on MSNBC embodied this lie, claiming that the Biden we saw in public is not the same as the one he spoke to in private. In March, he claimed that “This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.” Just a few weeks ago, Scarborough said, “Biden is far sharper, more intellectually curious, and far more insightful on global affairs than any House GOP speaker I have met over 30 years.” After the debate, Scarborough said that Biden should drop out of the race.
It must be reiterated: This is not new. People are pretending that this is a huge shock to the American people, but they are all lying. The reason that Robert Hur suggested against prosecuting Biden for his mishandling of classified documents is that Biden was too old and frail to stand trial. There’s a reason why the DOJ is preventing the House GOP from getting the tapes of those interviews Hur did with Biden - they don’t want the American people to hear how terrible Biden sounds. They don’t want the American people informed because then they may not vote for their candidate.
These pseudo-revelations have repercussions that go far beyond the current election. Joe Biden isn’t only running for President; he is the current President. China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and every other bad-faith actor in the international scene are salivating over this performance, but also making plans. If China wants to take over Taiwan, if Russia wants to launch a major offensive in Ukraine, if Iran wants to escalate in Israel, if Venezuela wants to send more people across the southern border, they would rather do it now than if Trump gets into office. Trump’s personality alone prevents all of these aggressive maneuvers, because they don’t know what he would do. They know what Biden will do; nothing.
Then there are American allies. If you’re Taiwan, Israel, Ukraine, or any European country, can you count on Joe Biden? The Democrats will claim that he’s been a stalwart ally, but has he? The war in Ukraine is on its third year of a practical stalemate. The war in Israel is only escalating, with attacks by Iran and Hezbollah. Military exercises around Taiwan by China are becoming a frequent occurrence. Joe Biden isn’t strong enough to stop any of this. He’s not negotiating, he’s not demanding; he’s basically kicking the can down the road. How long until our allies find another benefactor, from which there will be dangerous consequences over how American strength is projected around the world?
Then there’s the question of who is actually in charge. Is it Jill Biden, the First Lady who got no votes? Is it Barack Obama, on his third term and hoping for a fourth? Is it whoever is closest to the Oval Office on any given day, which would explain the incoherence of the policies that come out of there? Who knows.
What is known is that Biden won’t drop out for two reasons. First, the people around him are only in power when he’s in power. If he drops out, the new candidate, whoever that is, will have their own people. That means that those in his campaign who are getting rich on getting a percentage of the ad buys during this campaign won’t be raking in the money anymore. That means that the people who are setting domestic and foreign policy unencumbered will be forced to find day jobs. Second, and this is far more important, it means that Trump definitely wins.
The Democrats have spent years cultivating an image of Biden next to Trump. Biden is the kind-hearted, well-meaning old man, and Trump is the con artist and bully. These are caricatures invented by the media, but they are solidified in the American mindset. Biden is not kind-hearted and well meaning. He literally challenges people to fistfights when they ask him tough questions. He mocks people, he attacks people, and he has caused more death, pain, and destruction that nearly any other president. How many people would be alive today if Biden wasn’t President? Start counting the casualties of the wars in Ukraine and Israel to get a number.
That doesn’t mean the Democrat vote gathering machine will be shut off - quite the contrary. It will be put on double speed. Democrats will work very hard to elect a dead man over Trump. This isn’t because they think Trump is dangerous, despite what they say. We had a term of President Trump; he’s not dangerous. This is because they like power, and refuse to relinquish it.
So the corpse will remain on the ticket. The only question is, how many people are foolish enough to vote for the dementia patient because they fell for the lies that have been fed to them for the last decade?
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
