Can We Please Let Joe Biden Rest Now?

On the cruelty of last night's presidential debate

“The Democratic advisers/donors who let this happen deserve our eternal contempt.” - Andrew Sullivan, midway through last night’s presidential debate

Yes. We’ve all seen what’s been happening to Joe Biden, some of us with clear eyes. As I wrote here recently, my mother has been declining into dementia for some years, as has Matt Welch’s dad. We visit often with each other’s parents, we chart the changes, some of them dangerous, some very dear. There is absolutely no denying what they and millions of others are going through, and I’m betting you’d be hard-pressed to find any adult who hasn’t seen or known someone thus afflicted.

And yet, as recently as two weeks ago, when I tweeted about a video showing Joe Biden apparently wandering during a parachuting exhibition, these are some of the comments I received:

“Try considering the idea that there was something out of frame. Then verify it. Then reflect on your gullibility. Unfollowed for idiocy.”

“News flash Biden is old lol can you point to any policy decisions that you think have been affected by him being old?”

“I've seen a family member slowly wither away from dementia, and I know full well how horrific that disease is. Especially towards the end. However..... There is no evidence that Biden has dementia, and it's silly for people to speculate by watching a short video like this.”

I must disagree; you can tell from a short video, or you can tell if you’ve seen the progress of dementia close-up. Sure, entities will attempt to fool us into thinking someone is more/less hardy than he is - that’s the game, and it’s a rotten one, which people should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for contributing to.

My tweet at the time read, "This poor man. And we are all incredibly cruel to go along with this. Maybe not you and me, but the whole Megillah. Then again, he signed up for this. What a rotten system." Most commenters agreed, others said I was falling for tricks played by FOX News or the NY Post; one person repeatedly came onto my feed and tried to start a fight, the insinuation being that I was a rube or a liar. I wondered, in light of Biden’s frightening appearance last night, what he might say today, so I checked: he’s retweeting Mark Hamill saying, “One off night doesn't change the fact that @JoeBiden is the most legislatively successful @POTUS in our lifetime. One off night also doesn't change the fact that the former guy is a convicted felon, serial liar & adjudicated rapist who is unfit for ANY office. Period.”

So there you go. It’s not about showing kindness to a man who is clearly suffering, no, get him out there, roll him out on a dolly if need be, anything to beat the other guy. How do they not see that they are the architects of this rotten system? How can you not want to do anything but call in protective services watching this?