In 2024 we will witness something I never thought would happen in a country of 350 million+ people .The two individuals most likely to be competing for President of the United States of America are older than we once thought should represent the interests of the American people. Yes, increased longevity allows older individuals to remain highly functional and significant contributors to society but they are competing for a job that is a very difficult, time-consuming, complicated mental experience that typically requires individuals at their peak mental acuity.
As someone who is now over seventy, I can attest that my mental acuity has declined, I have less energy, and my level of concentration is not as sharp as it was 20 or even 10 years ago. It is hard to imagine that in a country of our size we have someone in his late seventies and someone in his early eighties that will be the nominee for each of the major political parties in the country. You must be 35 years of age or older to be eligible to run for president, so there are tens of millions of people meeting the eligibility requirements who could pursue being President of the United States.
There has been much made in the news media about the age of Joe Biden, but he is more fit and every bit as physically capable as the seemingly less fit former president. In terms of mental acuity, both men have their moments, but the current president often sounds much more coherent, while his opponent expresses false statements or lies that are easily disproven by honest observers and often just simply rambles on incoherently.
The current president has done a good job guiding the country and his economic vision has resulted in the U.S. out performing most, if not all, other countries that comprise the developed world. While the economy could be better for many lower- and middle-class households, when the U.S. is compared to most other countries, it could be much worse. The issue of income inequality, where much of the economic gains in the country produce greater wealth for those already very wealthy, has been a problem for decades often exacerbated by misguided public policies and legislative actions. The current president has vast experience in the workings of government and foreign affairs which is a positive attribute although he has a limited direct involvement in business endeavors that provide a different perspective from that of someone that has been in the public sector most of his adult life.
The former president did only a fair job guiding the country. He was looked upon with a great deal of skepticism by most U.S. allies and he seemed to relate better to the more despotic leaders that govern their respective countries in a dictatorial manner. Granted he does appear to provide millions of voters with the appearance as a “strongman leader” that they seem to want and need. There is nothing of significance, other than a tax cut that provided 80+ percent of the benefit to the very wealthy, that was produced during his four years in office. He promised much but produced very little. His hesitancy, born out of political self-preservation, responding to the covid pandemic resulted in perhaps somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 more deaths and countless more serious ill individuals than should have been realized by the U.S. He recently ranked last among all presidents in a survey of historians, the current president ranked in the mid-teens.
During 2024, the American public will likely choose between these two men who have served the country as president. One, three plus years younger, has claimed he would be dictator for a day. Nobody believes anyone can be dictator for a day. His campaign pronouncements have indicated a very fascist, authoritative form of governance that is the antithesis of our current, albeit flawed, form of government by, for and of the people. The older, by three years, candidate believes in our current form of government and by all accounts has done a good job of leading the country contrary to the political propaganda in some of the news media and on much of the online social media. While every person who seeks the presidency is flawed in some manner, it is essential that the voters are well informed when making their choice because the choice could have huge ramifications on the prospect of achieving a more perfect union as stated in the constitution.
Whomever becomes president in 2024, let us all hope the loser will act in a magnanimous manner and not put the country through the nonsense of an alleged stolen presidential election of 2020. There has never been any hard evidence that any fraud existed of the scale that would have changed the outcome of 2020. After numerous investigations and definitive reports published, there was no substantial voter fraud to support the wild claim of a stolen election. The Big Lie is exactly what it is, pure fabrication designed to hold on to MAGA republicans until the next election and make them believe they had been cheated. I suspect that should the current president be re-elected, the former president will not act magnanimous and accept defeat but create chaos of the likes we have never seen in the aftermath of a presidential election.
Bottom line is that the 2024 election will be a watershed moment, and not a positive sense, in the history of the country that will change the future of our country no matter what the ultimate outcome.
