It’s impossible to look at American politics right now without thinking WTF? In the blue corner there is the faltering, forgetful, and possibly demented Biden and in the red corner we have a vitriolic, revengeful, pussy-grabbing sociopathic, now-convicted felon who is Trump. It’s the weirdest presidential wrestling match ever. It’s so depressing. Are these really the best of America’s political heavyweights? In all of the US – the country that bangs on about the American Dream, the birthplace of free market capitalism – is this all they have?
It’s the duopoly in overdrive. Two old white men. This isn’t bingo, this is world politics. In a landscape of cataclysmic climate change and war, why are Americans being given two old men? Can you imagine them offering up 81- and 78-year-old women as presidential hopefuls? The internet would melt down. This is patriarchy. And these are our patriarchs. The men from the past who won’t leave the table. That’s no way to navigate the future.
The retirement age in the US is 66. Joe Biden is 81. Trump is 78. Everyone talks about Biden’s age, forgetting that Trump isn’t far behind. Forget everything else – they are BOTH too old. They’re both more than a decade older than the retirement age. Being president is a very intense and demanding job. I’d think it’s a 100-hour week minimum. Although on reflection I do recall Trump being MIA or on the golf course during his last term.
Having two seniors running for president is as ludicrous as doing the reverse – having presidential candidates under the adult working age. Imagine if it were Joe Biden 17 vs Trump 16.
There would be outrage. Although they’d at least have better odds on either of them seeing out their term and managing the gruelling hours.
It’s painful to watch Biden struggle. And of course there’s Trump. No longer a ‘felon’, now a ‘survivor’ of an assassination. I mean, you couldn’t have planned a better way of driving the narrative away from your opponent and back to you! And as the hero! Showing your ability to survive adversity. No longer old. But super human! A bullet graze AND a fist pump? Even in Hollywood a director would say ‘easy on the fist pump’. Especially as a man died and others are critically injured. Read the room mate.
What really irks me is that Trump and the conservative forces that have propelled him into politics are responsible for creating an American world where buying a gun is almost as easy as buying an iPhone, and anyone can choose to express their political or social discontent by using that gun to murder as many people as they can manage. Trump has become a victim of the same system he has helped create. But instead of it being called out, he can be the macho man hero who rises above the violence of his opponents, with a photo to immortalise it in the history books forever.
I mean, how’s the timing? Just as Meta rolled back the restrictions on his Facie and Insta accounts! Holy crap! That shit will go viral! Who would believe the luck of those events happening within 24 hours of each other!
Yes, Biden and Trump can be president – but of their local golf clubs. End the patriarchy.
Before it ends us.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
