President Joe Biden’s detractors keep slamming his age, as if because of it the nation is in grave jeopardy, or is already on the brink of disaster (“Joe Biden is too old to run again” — July 27).
His calendar age seems to be the worst criticism they can make, since by all external measures, America’s lot is the best it has been in quite a spell: Our economy is strong, burgeoning even. We’re as close to full employment as we get. Despite our divisive politics, it’s all Kabuki-like Sturm und Drang, with actual economic trouble impossible to find.
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These realities say either Biden’s performance is younger than his years, or those years mean far less than his critics claim. Not to mention that age afflicts us all differently, not uniformly. Why jump the gun?
It may interest today’s worshipers of youth to know that elsewhere, age is seen as an element of wisdom and good judgment, less subject to the missteps of younger wannabees. A good example: The empty fulminations of, say, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, though she is not alone in displaying her lack of wisdom.
We Americans rarely scan the globe for examples of the age of other top politicians or statesmen whose leadership was or is prodigious, though it might benefit us to do so. Germany’s Konrad Adenauer held its top office until he reached 87. Queen Margarethe II of Denmark is still going strong at 83. Italy’s Sergio Mattarella, in office, is 82.
So why all the ruckus, intensified currently by Mitch McConnell’s scary falls and freeze-ups? Try to remember that our Great Depression occurred under the presidency of Republican Herbert Hoover when he was a sprightly 55.
There’s calendar age, biological age and then there’s mental age. Mental age matters most when running the most consequential nation on Earth. Biden has what it takes, or we’d already be in sorry straits. Joe Biden is on a roll. Let’s be thankful, and stand pat, without jumping the gun.
Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park
Jason Aldean doesn’t know the meaning of ‘canceled’
Thank you, Mona Charen, for your column “Jason Aldean thinks he’s been misunderstood. He hasn’t” (July 27) on Aldean and his odious, obviously racist song “Try That in a Small Town.” It’s so incredibly disingenuous of him to claim he’s being canceled.
Yeah, sure, when your song is a huge hit and is being played on country music radio stations all across the land?
If Aldean wants an authentic example of a band being canceled, he need only look back to 2003 when the Dixie Chicks lost their livelihood after Natalie Maines spoke out against then-President George W. Bush and his invasion of Iraq (which was based on the “weapons of mass destruction” lie). The Chicks were called traitors and banned from the airwaves, effectively tanking their career overnight.
Jason Aldean’s popularity and bank account haven’t suffered a lick. He needs to stop whining.
Renee Lukas, Galewood
