The majority of people who objected to Biden were Democrats that wanted a better candidate because we were afraid that Biden would lose to Trump. The majority of Republicans can't conceive of a universe where Trump ever loses an election so there hasn't been an equivalently loud push on the GOP side.
Also, while I'd personally rather Trump be off the ballot entirely a fair chunk of democratic voters seem to think we're better off with Trump on the GOP ballot than someone who is younger and may be better able to seem less openly deplorable. I disagree with that notion and also think Trump should step down because any chance that he wins the election is too high of a chance.
Basically, this article is drawing an equivalence between two very different situations.
Are people really just now realizing he's barely coherent? That's why he got so much coverage 9 years ago in the first place. It's been the #1 joke every fucking day for night show hosts since he rolled down that escalator to say Mexicans are rapists.
The donor class doesn't really care about Trump's mental (and psychological) issues, and really don't even care much about Trump at all. They're not actually supporting him - they're supporting the handlers and advisers with which they intend to surround him, and the policies (and primarily Project 2025) that they intend to enact through him.
If anything, his incoherence is, to them, a benefit, since he's just that much easier to manipulate. Since he can't form a coherent thought on his own, he can be readily filled up with someone else's ideas, just so long as they're framed correctly.
He's like a wind-up toy - all they have to do is feed him carefully crafted stories and get him wound up and pointed in the right direction, then just let him go.
Trump being senile doesn't matter to Trump voters. As long as he hates the same people they hate, they'll decorate their trailers and go out and put him in power.
Biden being senile did matter to Biden voters. That's why they attacked him on it. And rightly so. Let the poor man retire. It's not an easy job if you actually bother to do it.
The GOP won't replace Trump even if they his health does concern them, because if they do they go from just under half of the votes to being obliterated.
The bothsiderist media didn't even bothsides things when both candidates were older. Now that only the Republican one is older, I have zero expectation of them asking why donnie is so old.
...i mean, to be fair he was barely coherent at seventy, too: that's kind of his whole thing, sputtering out incoherent word salad so his fanbase can infer whatever they want to hear...
"Well, yes, he said that but what he really meant was this. I like him because he tells it like it is."
People need to start talking about a possible President Vance. If Trump wins, it is a near certainty that he will die or be declared unfit within a year or two at most. If that were to happen, Vance will become president. Project 2025 would have Vance's full support and the support of the Federalist Society and the backing of billionaires like Thiel and Musk.
I've seen a bunch of articles about it this past week. With Biden there were a lot of prominent liberal voices calling for him to step down, not to mention the absolute lack of enthusiasm within the rank and file that was showing in polls - with Trump the party's rank and file are on his side no matter what, so if a prominent conservative calls for him to step down they will be ostracized for it.
He had no controversies, He said no outrageous things. The worst thing Biden ever did was show up, heavily jetlagged, to a debate, and still managed to perform decently in it (despite what the mass hallucination the media has incited would have you believe)
He did his job, he did it well.
And because of that, people didnt turn into broadcast media in droves to see the latest tidbits on what he had done. So ratings, and viewership, and profit declined for broadcast media.
Which is why they love and want another Trump presidency.
Because he is always saying something horrible, doing something horrible, has some new horrible controversy, almost every fucking day.
Things that drive people to turn to the news every day and watch, in numbers that havent been seen since 9/11, and those numbers endured for 4 years of presidency.
The Broadcast Media is addicted to trump, and will stop at nothing to ensure they can continue hit their drug of choice every. single. day. multiple times a day, if possible. and the best way to do that is to whitewash everything he does and says, and go after his opponents with an aggression that is worthy of lawsuits, to ensure he can be president again and give them those ratings, viewership and income again.
On the Left and amid the DNC, there has always been a lack of unity. The Democrats in general display a stark willingness to turn against their own, to eat their own candidate, in the event of a failure. A favored politician gets caught sending inappropriate pictures to someone who isn't their spouse? Their career is over. An incumbent fucks up a debate? Their base splits and explodes and forces them out. On the left, you can't fuck up and still expect unwavering support like you could on the Right.
On the right, the cries about age and fitness are being shown as bad faith arguments. The fact that they still support their pants-shitting senile rambler felon of a candidate makes it pretty clear that they don't actually care THAT MUCH about age and fitness. It was just a convenient weapon they could turn turn against Biden, because he was very slightly older than Trump, and when Trump babbles like an imbecile that's just his normal. He's always been unfit, as opposed to recently declining to that level.
The fact that Biden's brain was turning to jello before our eyes was only a big topic of conversation because delusional libs refused to acknowledge it for years. "Trump is incoherent" is not a big topic of conversation because no one who is human denies it, it's been obvious since before Biden was a serious candidate
Well since Biden's leaving office shortly I don't care that he's too old for reelection anymore. Trump on the other hand has always needed to go; his mental degeneracy, the cognitive kind not the part where he's just a degenerate, it's just a new reason to add to the list.
This man is far too old to be learning for the first time that the press treatment of Trump ranges from ‘with kid gloves’ to ‘trying to get him elected’. Has he been asleep since 2016?
This also has the taste of a dude that is seething about Biden being pressured into not seeking re-election, in which case he needs to get the fuck over it.
What are your favorite top 3 "wow, Trump is nuts" videos to show your uncle who's only seen the Fox News version of Trump? The nuclear engineer monologue is pretty good.
Now I get this article is rhetorical, but just we're all clear: When Democrats recognize truth, then they adjust; when Republicans recognize truth, they ignore, spin, lie, and double-down on said lie. We saw the truth behind both Biden and Trump being old; but naturally, their criticism only applies to the (D).
It's also literally in their brain wiring. Their Anterior Cingulate Cortex tends to be smaller, which reduces the capacity to recognize patterns or introspect on cognitive dissonance...
Easy. We wanted the Democrats to have a better, more competitive candidate so we needed to take down Biden. His age was frankly, only a minor component of that that came into play at the end.
I have no interest in adding the Republicans swapping out for a more viable candidate.
Am really pissed off when interviewers or reporters don't just call him out there and then. They do it to people here in UK (a lot of the time) unless you're on a dog whistle station.
Trump shouldn't be up there. I got no issue saying that and it isn't ageist. I'm not going to also memory hole all the people that blindly defended Biden when you could see with your own eye's his decline. GOP people never cared from the start it was just a talking point for them.
Still here and still not voting for trump. I do appreciate being able to vote for someone who is coherent. It would be nice to have a candidate progressive enough to address current and approaching crisis instead of the continuing this slide to the right.
for the GOP, it was never about age or fitness with Biden-- that was just another weakness to attack; it didn't even matter if it was true. With Trump, it's all about "our team must win"
They're not questioning him for the same reason questions about Biden's fitness were brushed aside until the debate; no one's actually listening to the old guy right now. For Biden, this was because his team was carefully controlling his public appearances. For Trump, it's because no one goes to his rallies except his supporters, and they're obviously not going to question him. Most people get the headlines and clips of his most outrageous statements, but almost all of them (myself included) would rather bash our own heads in with a crowbar than sit through one of his rambling, racist speeches.
At the debate, a large portion of the population is going to sit down and listen to Trump speak, and this time, his opponent won't be an even older, even more incoherent man. If that doesn't lead to questions about his fitness or mental state, then I will be concerned. But right now, the fact that no one is paying attention to Trump's mental decline makes sense to me.
Republicans understand that projecting faultless confidence is an advantage in a head to head race.
Democrats... And those who claim to be Democrats... Seems to believe that passing through a labyrinth of strife and tribulation is somehow an advantage. Vetting candidates with fire only makes sense if you are in an environment where good faith prevails.
As somebody who watches this whole US election circus from the outside, it seems to be like Americans treat the election like fantasy football, except at the end of the day if you player gets injured somebody has to go out there and break the dudes legs for real.
Trump could be in a vegetative state, literally medically braindead, and Trump voters would still line up to cast their ballots for him.
That's what happens when you have a cult of personality, it takes on a life of it's own and becomes more of an identity than an ideology. They don't care what Trump stands for or even if Trump stands, all that matters is that they are Trump people and they only want to associate with their kind.
For the rest of us, things like fitness and policy matter, which is why Biden was held to account and Trump will never be. There is no line that cannot be crossed.
There is a very distinct double standard when it comes to the candidates and what the media and citizens focus on. Kamala has to be flawless and Trump gets a "Trump will be Trump" attitude.
Iunno Rex Hupke but don't act like you were ever on their side. All this opinion artiste ever said was in defence of biden's age and his candidacy. Is he now saying he considers age a factor in his reasoning?
Whatever point this mf might have on this topic i don't want to hear it from him
Since his run for 2016 his speech has been teetering on coherency... It's part of how he became a meme. How far gone he/it is is more or less meta and par for course.
I think the important answer to this question is that enough of those who were questioning Biden's age/fitness to the effect that he would lose the election are now willing to vote for Kamala to the effect that she wins it (knocking on wood til I put a hole through it).