Joe Biden’s Age II

In January. Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell posted a blog in this space called Joe Biden’s Age, arguing that Biden’s age helped make him trustworthy. The months since have shown Steve’s to be a minority view.

At the time, I wrote a piece countering Steve’s argument, saying Biden’s age was his greatest liability, not an asset. My point, though, was that the problem wasn’t just Biden’s age. It was how he wore it, his painstaking way of walking and trouble communicating. Some of our more faithful readers may be saying to themselves, “I don’t remember seeing that.” You are correct. I never posted it. Steve’s my Reformed Journal partner and I didn’t feel great about publicly disagreeing with him. On top of that, as I reread my article, I thought it sounded like it could have been written by Karl Rove. Way back in January, the vultures were already circling, and I didn’t want to pile on.

Perhaps it was age-ism on my part to say Biden’s age was a liability. I’m not sure. I did appreciate recently seeing a comment from George W. Bush when the election looked like it was going to be a replay of 2020: “I’m younger than both of the candidates, and I’m too old.” There are jobs—air traffic controller, submarine captain, steeplejack—that should not be done by people in their 80s. Shouldn’t leader of the free world be on that list?

As for Steve’s original argument that age brings wisdom and trustworthiness, I’d point out the Republican nominee is 78 and does not demonstrate either of those traits. I think T.S. Eliot may have had that man in mind when he wrote about “having the experience but missing the meaning.”

But enough about he who must not be named. I am not interested in him. I want to say a few words instead about Joe Biden.

Frederick Buechner’s concept of “the stewardship of pain” has been a guiding concept in my life and is the thread that runs through my book Telling Stories in the Dark. Biden has been a good steward of his pain. He’s known great pain, from the tragic loss of his first wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi in a traffic accident in 1972, to the loss of his son Beau in 2015. Joe Biden has taken these losses into his being—he hasn’t buried the pain or gotten stuck in it. I begin Telling Stories in the Dark with a quote from Richard Rohr: “If we do not transform our pain, we will surely transmit it.” Joe Biden has transformed his pain into compassion and empathy.

Perhaps the greatest gifts Joe Biden has given America are his normalcy and decency, which stem from his emotional health. The United States has experienced what it is like to have an emotionally unhealthy leader. Every time I hear someone on the campaign trail ask, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” I say “Yes” enthusiastically. I don’t care that the price of gasoline is higher today than in 2020. Do you remember the chaos of 2017 – 2021? I worry we have collective amnesia. We had a global pandemic and a leader who did not rise to the challenge. He denied it’s reality, called it a Democratic hoax, recommended unproven treatments, did not listen to his health advisors, and finally just blamed China. We had a foreign policy bent on alienating traditional allies and cozying up to authoritarian strongmen. We had constant churning in key positions (including four chiefs of staff). One chart I’ve seen says the turnover rate in key positions in the previous administration was the highest in history, at 92%. And never forget that a mob of the former president’s supporters wanted to hang the vice president on January 6, 2021. The chaos was exhausting.

Biden is not exhausting. He’s level. Humane. Genuine. The chaos is still around, flaring up in culture warriors like those behind Project 2025 and, locally, in Ottawa Impact. And chaos comes out every time Marjorie Taylor Greene opens her mouth. Yet when I drive around and see “F*#% Joe Biden” signs, I’m triggered to say a little prayer thanking God for giving us such a decent man, better than we deserve.

Last month, Joe Biden proved his decency yet again, by putting the needs of the nation in front of his ego. By stepping out of the race, he made himself a lame duck four months before the election and in many senses prematurely ended his presidency—although he pulled off a stunning diplomatic move in getting several nations to cooperate to bring a number of political prisoners out of Russia and his move did give him the freedom to propose a series of Supreme Court reforms which should be seriously considered. Biden swallowed his pride and got out of the way of the next generation of leaders.

(To those who say his move was unconstitutional, all you’re doing when you say that is demonstrating a lack of knowledge about what’s actually in the Constitution. Not only is it mute about primary elections, the Constitution doesn’t even have provisions for a popular vote.)

Biden’s move is reminiscent of George Washington refusing to run for a third term because it would not be good for the nation. At the time, Washington identified three threats: regionalism, partisanship, and foreign entanglements. Washington did not have the ability to identify racism as a threat, but it is fair to say America’s Civil War was related to regionalism. Partisanship is worse than ever, and foreign nations are trying to influence our elections. Over two hundred years since the time of Washington, the threats are still real. I would add the distortion of religion known as Christian Nationalism and the existential threat posed by the climate crisis to the list.

There will never be a day when we arrive and can say, “We’ve made it.” But thank God for the normalcy and decency of the past four years. In the final analysis, it’s not Joe Biden’s age that mattered. It’s that we lived in the age of Joe Biden.