Here’s an update on the likely (and depressing) Biden-Trump race. Prepare yourself. It’s not pretty.

The first primaries are just more than six months away, the first GOP debate is next month, and yet the only thing to be sure of is that clear and consistent majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents don’t want the choice they’re likely to get, a race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. So wrote Peggy Noonan in today’s weekend Wall Street Journal (July 8-9, 2023, see her article here).

As I indicated in my previous post, both men would do the country a huge favor by dropping out of the race (see that post here). In that essay I zeroed in on the contents inside their respective skulls, touching on Biden’s declining mind and Trump’s grating behavior when he was in office.

Biden’s mental acuity

I didn’t elaborate much beyond that, thinking it would be unkind to mention that Biden apparently wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer even when he was younger, for example when he was in law school. Although he once claimed he had graduated in the top half of his law school class, when he released his law school records, they revealed that he had graduated 76^th in his class of 85 at Syracuse University College of Law.

And his years of decline are evident to practically everyone. As NBC News correspondent Jonathan Allen phrased it 2021: Age is catching up to Biden in the White House, adding his decline is alarming. He went on to highlight numerous instances of Biden’s gaffes and verbal slip-ups, incidents that have become even more common.

Trump’s erratic behavior

Nor did I elaborate on some of Trump’s more egregious behavior while he was our president, or after he left the office. Plenty has been said about his conduct. As The Guardian’s Richard Wolffe said in an op-ed a few years ago, It is important to recognize that Trump’s language is toxic, incendiary, and dangerous. It tears at the fabric of the republic.

Trump’s bizarre behavior has far-reaching effects, although he seems oblivious of them, or refuses to care about the consequences. Here’s how Peggy Noonan expressed the repercussions of his aggressive demeanor. His special superpower is that he is the only Republican who will unite and rally the Democratic base and drive independents away. He keeps the Biden coalition together.

Course of action?

So what might we concerned citizens do to derail the likely (and depressing) Biden-Trump race? What powers do we have? No matter which side of the political aisle we occupy, surely we can find better candidates than these two  ____________  (fill in the blank with the noun you think best describes them). If you are a party activist, or simply someone who thinks the person serving as our president should be alert, competent, and diplomatically tactful, express yourself.  Let’s demand someone better than our two (whatever you called them) who are bumbling along in the depressing Biden-Trump race.

Food for thought

Here’s a final tidbit from Peggy Noonan: If either party were daring and serious about history, it would shake off its front-runner and increase its chances of winning in 2024.