The final weekend of June has dawned across America, carrying with it scorching heat and an unprecedented internal crisis for the Democratic Party over the management of their commander-in-chief.
In the wee hours of Friday, the collective anxiety of the Democrats, largely caused by Joe Biden’s unsteady, soft-spoken and at times puzzling presentation in a televised presidential election dialog with Donald Trump, outshone the event itself. The notion of supplanting Biden as the Democratic President candidate evolved from being a murmur in the corridors of the Capitol Hill to a national discussion dominating Friday’s TV shows and headlines.
Donald Trump, although crabby and antagonistic in his performance – verified subsequently by fact-checkers as having voiced numerous falsehoods – came across energetically compared to his adversary. This alone was sufficient. Polls were consistently proclaiming the Republican nominee to be the decisive winner of November’s election, while the nation’s faith in Biden’s capability to serve for another term plummeted to an all-time low.
Every ghastly scenario envisioned by Democratic strategists played out on the most ill-timed platform: broadcasted from a ghostly, secluded studio at the border of Martin Luther King’s birth city to households nationwide. Party representatives rapidly sought to clarify they weren’t considering replacing Biden as the nominee or that he might resign. However, the idea had already been seeded in the public mind.
The candidates are merely four years apart in age, yet in terms of demographics and character, they signify two distinct epochs in America. Born in 1942, Joe Biden, an established member of the Silent Generation, allowed this amiable sensibility to reflect during Thursday’s debate with the usage of some dated expressions. When was the last time an American under 50 heard the archaic term “malarkey” or the expression he aimed at Trump, “the morals of an alley cat”?
Democratic strategists banked on Biden’s resilience, honesty, and cordiality to prevail in the debate, right until the end.
Born merely four years after Biden but moulded by his family’s newfound wealth, Trump smoothly transitioned from his original persona as the flamboyant monarch of New York’s dazzling scene to a political spectre wreaking havoc in Congress, the Supreme Court, foreign policy, and thrusting America into a realm where the words “threat to democracy” are as customary as “have a good day.”
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They both harbour an unfaltering conviction that they have – and need – to persist indefinitely. In the 2020 elections, Biden attracted an unprecedented 81 million votes, marking the highest number in the annals of US election history. Despite losing the presidency, Trump garnered 74 million votes – an amount unmatched by any previous winner. Today, they re-emerge as noticeably unpopular figures, whose words and presence have worn out their listeners and their nation.
In an era where western culture values youth above all else, it seemed rather merciless, even brutal, to see Biden, at the ripe age of 81, exposed not by the cunning tactics or command of a political adversary, but rather by the relentless march of time.
He is too obstinate, too dignified to acknowledge this reality on his own. This past Friday saw him campaigning in Raleigh, North Carolina before planning to head to New York for a fundraising event. The assurance given by Biden to salvage democracy, with the US on the cusp of its Independence Day festivities, is coming apart at the seams right in front of him. If he manages to bounce back from this, it may be the most significant event in his half-century political career. Suddenly though, the November elections seem an eternity away.”