Sometimes when American elections are discussed in the media, they use the term “coattails”. A presidential candidate is said to have coattails when he is popular enough to help other candidates in his party get elected. If he isn’t popular, he has no coattails. Right now, Joe Biden doesn’t even have a coat.
This isn’t something we think about much in Canada. For us the process is reversed. We don’t vote for the prime minister. We elect people to parliament. Usually, the prime minister comes from the party with the most seats. The effect is similar, however. If Justin Trudeau is still the Liberal party leader during the next election, the Liberals might not win many seats.
The stakes are often higher in America for the politicians. Once elected, you are more likely to get re-elected. If you want to keep your job, you don’t want an unpopular president weighing you down. You don’t have to like him, but he does need coattails.
This is where things have broken down with Joe Biden. It has become apparent that he can no longer be trusted to be coherent. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the video of the Biden-Trump debate, then come back. I’ll wait. I’ll still be here. Cringing will happen. So will sadness at the way Biden has decayed.
This isn’t an attack on Joe Biden. I’m 67 and I fear I’m watching my future. My memory isn’t what it used to be. Time affects us all, just in different ways and degrees.
I find it reprehensible that Biden’s friends and family haven’t stepped in to stop the Democrats from abusing this old man. They’re using the movie “Weekend at Bernie’s” as a campaign strategy. If I was as far gone as Biden, my wife would wait until I was napping in my recliner, then wrap me in duct tape. She loves me too much to allow me to be used that way.
Bill Maher has repeatedly quipped that he’d rather vote for Biden’s “head in a jar of blue liquid”. The way things are going, he might get the chance.
Now we see reports of Democrats who want to have Biden replaced by someone, anyone, who might have a better chance of winning, and importantly, someone with coattails.
The BBC wrote an article listing Democrats calling for Biden to step aside.
Notice that these people are being honest about what the major concern is. They consider the upcoming election too important to lose. Their worry isn’t about Joe Biden’s health. They don’t even care that a senile man is being propped up to run the most powerful country in the world. They wouldn’t care if Joe Biden was being spoon-fed his porridge every morning as long as people would vote for him, and by extension, for them. The panic has only set in now that the whole world sees it. The jig is up.
I’m not suggesting that the Republicans are better than the Democrats. For years Republicans have voted for Trump while holding their noses. They, too, want power, not principles. Nor am I saying that Canada is better than America. We have petty, power-hungry politicians on both sides of our aisles as well.
But think about this. If politicians can’t find a way to focus on the painful decline of an old man who had been a friend and colleague for 50 years, we shouldn’t be surprised that they don’t seem to care much about the quality of our lives either. They don’t want power to do good things. They just want power.