By Ryan Mardon
Throughout the Democratic presidential primaries, I saw former Vice President Joe Biden as the lesser of evils among all of the possible candidates who actually had a chance of securing the nomination.
Now that Joe Biden is officially the Democratic presidential nominee, and after seeing him on the campaign trail this year, I simply cannot bring myself to join the Biden camp. My main concerns for a potential President Biden are his cognitive ability, his inability to stand up to the radical left and his ever-changing stances on issues.
At 77 years old, Biden would be the oldest elected president in history. If elected, Biden will be the same age starting his first term in office that President Reagan was when he left office. Whether it be dementia or some other mental impairment, I do not believe that Biden has the cognitive ability to lead the most powerful nation in the world or be tough on countries such as China, Iran and Russia.
His cognitive decline is evident in the multiple gaffes he commits almost on the daily, ranging from not speaking in complete sentences to stating facts that just simply are not true. When Biden was questioned about being the oldest president in American history if elected, Biden miraculously responded with “What about Winston Churchill?”
While, in all fairness, Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during and post World War II, are we really supposed to vote for someone who thinks there was a President Churchill in the United States?
Biden has also somehow managed to incorrectly state that over 120 million people, as well as 6,000 members of the armed forces, have died from COVID-19. He also said during a Democratic debate that he had the support of the only Black female ever elected to the senate, referring to former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, while Senator Kamala Harris, the second Black female elected to the senate, stood next to him on the debate stage.
Perhaps most shocking, Biden also claimed during a radio interview that if you don’t vote for him then “you ain’t Black.”
While I will give Biden the benefit of the doubt that he might have simply misspoken, it gets worse when he tries to formulate complete sentences. When talking about COVID-19, Biden said “COVID has taken this year, just since the outbreak, has taken more than 100 years. Look, the lives, when you think about it, more lives this year than any other year for the past 100 years.”
Additionally, when attempting to recite the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Biden said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.” It is pretty alarming when a candidate for president refers to the Declaration of Independence, one of the founding documents of our country as “the thing.”
The most frustrating thing about Biden’s cognitive ability is that it appears his campaign team and wife are aware of his struggles, yet continue to push for him to be elected President. This is why they want him to stay in his basement and give safe speeches via teleprompter.
On top of the concern for Biden’s cognitive ability is his inability to stand up for what he truly believes and instead pander to the radical left.
On one hand, we have Jill Biden stating that Biden is a moderate, and on the other we have Biden unveiling his $2 trillion Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-backed Green New Deal, and Senator Bernie Sanders stating how Biden could possibly be the most progressive candidate since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
This also begs the question of what exactly does Biden believe? He doesn’t seem to have his own values, rather he just reiterates what far-left politicians, such as Sanders and Cortez, tell him to say, possibly in a ploy to merely secure the vote of the far left.
This also leads me to my fear of Biden merely being a puppet for these far-left politicians to gain power. Biden himself has even said that he is a “transition candidate to bring the Mayor Petes of the world into this administration.”
I truly believe that, if elected in November, President Biden will either eventually step down and let Senator Kamala Harris assume the presidency, or remain a figurehead and let Harris and other politicians call the shots and run the show.
Recently, Senator Harris herself accidentally referred to a potential Biden administration as a “Harris administration, together with Joe Biden as the president of the United States.”
Joe Biden’s record is also something to be taken into account. Biden has been in office for 47 years, yet he blames the current administration for the problems of the world. He ran for president unsuccessfully in 1988 and 2008.
If Biden was already unsuccessful in his bid for the presidency twice and has been in office for 47 years, why should we believe he’s suddenly the solution to all the problems we face in present-day America?
He has also flip-flopped on many issues, including same-sex marriage. He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, but later supported same-sex marriage. On issues of national security, he voted for the Secure Fence Act in 2006 for 700 miles of new border fencing, yet has criticized the construction of the current border wall and said there will not be another foot built under his administration.
Most recently, he spoke in Pittsburgh, denying that he ever said he would ban fracking, when he stated multiple times during debates that he would not allow any new fracking and that he would “work it out.”
Biden’s reversal of his views while speaking in Pennsylvania, a state with a large number of fracking jobs, displays his constant pandering to whichever audience is present in order to secure the vote. In this case, he does not want to make it seem like he will cause job loss in Pennsylvania due to his crackdown on fracking.
Another time Biden reversed his stance is when he criticized Trump’s travel ban on China but later applauded the decision. While it is not clear if Biden was explicitly referring to the ban as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he did criticize the president’s response as xenophobic.
Biden also flip-flopped on whether or not he took a cognitive test and if he would instate a national mask mandate.
While I will not be ridin’ with Biden this November, I still would like to extend an olive branch. I truly believe Biden is a good person and a respectable man who has dedicated his life to serving this country in office.
Come Nov. 3, the citizens of the United States will cast their votes to decide whether to re-elect President Donald J. Trump or elect Joe Biden.
If Joe Biden is elected the 46th President of the United States, I will still respect him and hope for his success, despite not voting for him, as I believe all Americans should do when the candidate they did not support wins an election.
Biden has had a speech impediment his entire life. To question his cognitive ability over a disability is a cheap shot.
Take a look at the cognitive aspect as the many gaffs said by the person sitting in the Oval Office. Things might be said incorrectly but it is the actions taken that should be considered and not something said. You might also see that the person sitting in the Oval Office listens only to his base and nothing else. You have every right not to vote of Biden but comparing him to the person already in the office does not hold water.
If you would like to read the article again, I never compared Joe Biden to President Trump.