Few questions have been more salient — or more controversial — in this election season than the thorny question of President Joe Biden’s age. At 81, Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history and he would be 86 at the end of a second term.
Like most other Democratic voters, I have deeply conflicting feelings about this unprecedented problem. Having an octogenarian president is clearly far from ideal, and Biden’s frequent gaffes and doddering demeanor regrettably do not inspire much confidence. It is understandable that voters would be concerned about these weaknesses in the president, and my party does itself no favors by blithely dismissing these sensical worries and sweeping them under the rug. The U.S. president has one of the most important and mentally strenuous jobs in the entire world. The idea of any 81-year-old — particularly an 81-year old who occasionally appears fatigued or confused — occupying that position is uncomfortable, regardless of how impressive their credentials and achievements are.
Additionally, I, like many other young progressive Democrats, see Biden’s advanced age as a symptom of the frustrating gerontocracy that has come to dominate our government in recent decades. The highest branches of the federal government are dominated by elderly people; washed-up establishment figures who do not need to care about the long-term consequences of their actions (or inactions) because they will not live to see them, who refuse to cede their iron grip on power so that younger people can enter politics, who willfully ignore the progressive views and priorities of younger voters and continue to force their lukewarm centrist views on the entire party and down voters’ throats.
Biden is past his prime and out of step with the needs and wants of many young liberal voters, so needless to say I would prefer a younger candidate who was more closely aligned with progressive priorities and more responsive to certain concerns. I am at the same time acutely aware that my preferences are at odds with the hard, cold political realities of this election. However much I may desire someone else, however unideal Biden’s age is, however concerning or out-of-touch his behavior might be, the hard truth that all people who care about democracy and the fate of the free world must swallow is this: there is no alternative to Biden.
There is not going to be a more youthful Democratic nominee, there is not going to be a miraculous third-party victory, and Donald Trump will almost assuredly win the Republican nomination. No one is coming to save us from this mess. A Biden-Trump rematch in the general election is essentially guaranteed, and in light of that unfortunate fact I believe that a vote for Biden is the only option.
I do have reservations around Biden’s age and would have liked him to step aside, but the chilling existential threats posed by Biden’s opponent make these concerns about the president’s age look trite, irrelevant and frankly silly.
Trump is openly authoritarian, both in his rhetoric and in his policy agenda. He routinely uses dehumanizing, fascistic, racist language (horrifyingly, he has a few times accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country”) — he has never apologized for attempting to violently overturn a democratic election and he continues to damage our democratic norms by promoting the lie that he won. He favors draconian policies on abortion and LGBTQ rights; and he and his team have promised to destroy any semblance of objectivity within the federal government and pack it with supporters if he returns to office.
We should not forget, either, what a parade of horrors the first Trump term was. Willful, jeering cruelty infected our society and became the backdrop to our lives; the norms we value were threatened, and the office we had been taught to respect became a vehicle for the spewing of venom. All-out assaults on the human dignity of various groups became disturbingly commonplace.
A second Trump term, with an even more vengeful and emboldened Trump, would be worse than the first. Biden has flaws — his age among them — but he does not display authoritarian inclinations. He at least pretends to care about the institutions and norms that hold our country and our world together, and does so with a modicum of compassion, intelligence and decorum. His opponent cannot say the same, which is why I shake my head at those who are willing to gamble on a second Trump term due to Biden’s age. The president’s age is problematic, but the question of age cannot, and should not, be allowed to distract us or to overshadow the more consequential questions that we will be forced to ask ourselves this election cycle, such as what the fate of our democracy will be or whether convicts are allowed to assume the presidency. No matter how insecure Biden’s age might make us feel, the fact remains that an elderly president is far better than a malevolent one.