Criticisms of Joe Biden are not ageist

I normally have a great deal of time for Globe and Mail's health columnist André Picard, who has written a great number of very good and well-argued articles, particularly over the pandemic.

I am disappointed with today's article, though, and with the argument he presents. He argues that the current groundswell of negative opinion against Joe Biden after his embarrassing press conference a few days ago (which I have commented on elsewhere) is nothing more than ageism and unworthy discrimination.

Not so. No-one - not even US special prosecutor Robert Hur, who called Biden a "well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory" and referred to his "diminished faculties in advancing age" in his recent damning report - is saying that President Biden is, at 81, too old to stand again for the presidential election later this year for that reason alone. Biden is not being dismissed solely because of his age; that would indeed constitute ageism.

What people are saying is that the leader of the free world needs to be held to a higher standard than the average Joe. With great power comes great responsibility. And part of that is that the President of the United States needs to demonstrate a certain (superior) level of cognitive competency, as well as a certain (superior) ability to communicate well.

Joe Biden, of late, is not demonstrating those superior qualities, and maybe didn't even four years ago. Arguably, gaffe-prone Donald Trump does not either, albeit for different reasons than Biden, although Trump's ability to communicate is hard to criticize, however much you may disagree with what he actually communicates. 

To point this out is not prejudice; this is stating facts. The problem is not Biden's age at all, it is his competency and his ability to communicate. So, for Mr. Picard to say that "age alone cannot be the measuring stick", and to say that Mr. Hur's comments about Biden's age constitute "a gratuitous insult" is moot. No-one is actually saying that, and I am surprised that Picard has not pick up on the distinction.