It’s been about a year since America’s senior citizens --by virtue of our vulnerability – unwittingly became the pandemic’s protected overaged poster children.  Having recently received my second shot of COVID vaccine, I’m now looking forward to a more fulfilling social existence.  But “Guess what?” as clueless Comrade Joe likes to say.

In a dreary speech, predictably praised by a left-wing media maven as “channeling our collective sorrow,” Biden held forth the hope that if Americans managed to obey the COVID protocols in the months ahead, lockdowns might be over in time for us to take part in a small family Fourth of July backyard barbecue. But then, narrowing his beady eyes, along with his expectations, Chicken Little warned that doom and gloom could yet rain on our parade, in which case we’d be home alone, eating crow instead of hot dogs.  If Joe can’t fondle the ladies anymore, he can at least dictate to the masses. 

It is becoming obvious that in Biden’s rare scripted addresses, the “message”  tends to lose relevance  because it is so often compromised by caveats.  Anyway, no matter what the subject, Biden sees himself as a calming, steady influence, the “adult in the room.”  Anything he proposes is simply by way of righting the Draconian policies he inherited.  He promises that we’ll smile again and glimpse that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. He helps himself to credit where it is not due.  He pretends to have a firm grip on the ball his predecessor dropped.

But Biden’s flat delivery, blank stare, general confusion, and tortured shuffle defy his hopeful pronouncements.  All his deliberations about how “we” have to come together and how “this is America, after all,” is nothing but trite tripe, cooked up by his speechwriters.  In reality, Uncle Joe, having already broken many of his campaign promises, is more a heel than a healer. 

What, in particular, has this to do with my being a senior?   In a sadly ironic way, it is infuriating to acknowledge that as soon as the odious spotlight of concern was finally shunted from America’s seniors, it landed squarely on a doddering, “sheltered” septuagenarian who, despite his own vulnerabilities, has somehow managed to occupy the White House.  As a result, the public’s attention is again centered on the matter of “age” and its attendant, unseemly issues of health and sanity.  Enough already! 

It is astonishing that after months of America’s concerns for the frailty of the elderly in a crisis, the majority of voters opted to elect as president someone who is physically and cognitively challenged!  Granted, Biden has the vaccine “in his arm,” and a mask on his face. Yet where is the general  public awareness that what happened to the senior population during a pandemic could likewise happen to an ailing old guy like Joe Biden, who, as leader of the free world, is expected to confront other stressful challenges whose outcomes would affect not just him, but an entire planet?

Biden and his buddies seem fixated, instead, on the failures of his predecessor. Articulating one’s own policies is tougher than bad-mouthing those of a past administration.  Sleepy Joe routinely carries in his suit pocket a card on which is written the number of Americans who perished from COVID.  He handles the card like worry beads from which might flow an indefinable sense of on-the-spot calm. 

Joe never misses a chance to remind us of how we suffered (“together”!)  but he never speculates on the source of our suffering.  

Meanwhile, Democrats who publicly pretend to be in denial are privately in distress.   The 2020 presidential race put them in dilemma mode.  While they knew the score about Biden’s infirmity, they also knew, more importantly, that none of the other Democrat primary challengers could put enough points on the scoreboard to win the presidency. 

Power being everything in politics, they considered a dim bulb better than none.  Settling on Joe Biden for president was a matter of pride going before a fall election.  His family and friends knew of his condition.  So, surely, did his doctors.  But during what passed for a presidential campaign, Joe found that being “locked down” in the comfort of his own home worked to his advantage.  His speeches were infrequent, brief, read listlessly from a teleprompter, and poorly attended.  COVID, as Jane Fonda dared to point out, was “God’s gift to the left.” That, and their hatred for Trump.   

The result is that America’s consciousness of  the dangers of age and infirmity during the pandemic, are being denied or minimized in Biden’s case.  Specter-like, he lectures to us about social distancing and the imperative of wearing masks, even as he lets his own slip below his nostrils, needing constant handling, and (when mask-less) unwisely touches his face and rubs his nose with unwashed hands.  Yet the president’s physical and mental shortcomings -- when even acknowledged by his supporters -- are dismissed as the exaggerations of  hateful, vindictive, even “terrorist” Trump supporters.

Conveniently, Democrats are doubling down on the double standard to which they have grown accustomed.  From as early as the year of Trump’s election, his critics -- from politicians to psychologists -- demanded he undergo a physical and psychological evaluation to assess his “fitness” to serve as POTUS.  Even after this was accomplished two years later, Trump-haters refused to accept the results. A disappointed press kept Trump’s physician for over an hour in the briefing room trying to get him to admit that Trump dangerously suffered from obesity, arrogance, bad judgment, poor diet, insufficient sleep, and more!

Age was also an issue with Ronald Reagan’s candidacy.   There have been no such concerns about Biden, however, though he has already in his short term in office made questionable judgment calls on immigration, energy, and dropping bombs on a sovereign  nation.  When one brave reporter asked Biden if he would submit to a test, wise-guy Joe belittled him, all but accusing him of being on drugs.   

Like other age groups, seniors are not all cut from the same cloth.  But despite our differences, we have common concerns. We look at each other and recognize our fallibility.  Now I look at the man who is president, and I feel afraid.  Somebody is pulling Joe Biden’s strings with one hand and America’s leg with the other.  I don’t think he will last long.  I only hope America lasts longer.   

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