The media has launched a full-scale assault on the fact that Joe Biden is 81 years old and is running for a second term in the current presidential race. Donald Trump is 77, only a few years younger than Biden, yet there doesn’t appear to be the same assault on his age.
We need to look at the media and ask why they are making the case that Biden is not fit for office based on his age. Most of the people in the media, those who are writing the stories and reporting on various outlets, are much younger than either Trump or Biden. Could they be involved in a case of bias, discrimination, or bullying on the basis of age? This very well could be the case. Researchers call this ageism, patterned after sexism and racism. Robert Butler defined the term in 1969. He defined ageism this way:
as a combination of three connected elements: negative attitudes towards old age and the aging process, discriminatory practices against older people, and institutional practices and policies that perpetuate stereotypes about elderly people
Wilkinson J and Ferraro K, Thirty Years of Ageism Research. In Nelson T (ed). Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice Against Older Persons. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002
I’ve made a short video introducing how ageism is impacting the 2024 presidential election. This is the first of future podcast-like videos on my blog. These are identified as Mudcreek videos, the name of a small creek located in a wetlands behind our home in Marietta, Georgia.
Comparisons Between Joe Biden and Donald Trump
The two lists below compare what Joe Biden and Donald Trump have accomplished, recently. If you want to compare their accomplishments based on age, you might reconsider what you know about those of us you consider “old.” I’m speaking to those of you who write about politics, especially about the 2024 presidential election. Why don’t you focus on the facts that are listed below? If you’re going to compare Biden to Trump be sure to include facts, not simply poll numbers. And by the way, what part do you and your colleagues play in influencing poll numbers?
Anyway, here are the lists. What do you think? Who would you vote for?
The Lists
- Biden is 81 and is an honest and wise man.
- Biden is 81 and defeated Donald Trump by more than 7 million votes in 2020
- Biden is 81 and dealt with the COVID pandemic by leading the inoculation of more than 250 million Americans.
- Biden is 81 and signed the biggest infrastructure legislation in history.
- Biden is 81 and wise by securing science and technology research for the future.
- Biden is 81 and empathizes with people from all cultural groups.
- Biden is 81 and has assembled a diverse cabinet with a high level of integrity.
- Biden is 81 and travels the country and the world to represent the ideals of our democracy.
- Biden is 81 and wonders why former president Trump would ever bow to a foreign dictator.
- Biden is 81 and he said that he would never bow to a foreign dictator.
- Biden is 81 and taller than his opponents.
- Biden is 81 and has never been indicted for civil or criminal charges.
- Donald Trump is 77 and has been charged with 91 felonies in four indictments.
- Donald Trump is 77 and was found liable for sexual battery and defamation. Ordered to pay $81 million.
- Donald Trump is 77 and was ordered to pay $350 million in damages in a New York civil business fraud trial.
- Donald Trump is 77 and caused the death over more than 400,000 Americans during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Donald Trump is 77 and was impeached two times, the first for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and the second for incitement of an insurrection on January 6, 2021.
- Donald Trump is 77 and is charged with four crimes in the Federal election interference case in a scheme to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election. He and six co-conspirators spread lies that there was widespread fraud in the election.
- Donald Trump is 77 and is accused of violating New York State law by obscuring payments made to his lawyer, who then paid $130,000 as hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
- Donald Trump is 77 and is accused of keeping classified documents after leaving the White House and storing them in closets and in plain site at The Mar-a-Largo Club. He also has been accused of a scheme to conceal the documents he kept.
- Donald Trump is 77, and along with 18 others, are accused under the Georgia Racketeering law of coordinating an effort to thwart the 2020 election.
Maturity and Age
Diane Ravitch wrote yesterday on her blog about ageism. She linked her readers to a blog written by Umair Hague, called The Issue. In this post, titled Trump, Biden, Maturity, Age he writes “There’s a big difference between age and ageism, in this case.” He says a lot in his post. Here is some of what he wrote. Follow this to his post to explore what’s happening in America in our presidential election.
“Ageism is bad for us. It’s bad for all of us. There is absolutely no link—none whatsoever—between youth and, in this case, good political leadership. Take a hard look at Europe’s rising far right. It’s led by relatively young people, for politics—in their 40s, often. Shall we say that just because someone is younger, it makes for a better leader, then? Surely only a fool would conclude that.
Ageism is a form of bias, in this sense. But what form of bias, in particular, in this context?
The reason that the far right is rising is because people are seeking safety, security, and strength, in an age of chaos, ruin, and fracture. So they’re turning to strongmen, as the turn of phrase goes. Strongmen. Strong-men. Strong…men.
Do you think Biden is too old to be president? Are you being ageist if you think so?
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