We Stand With President Biden. Youth Populism and Journalistic Populism Destroy Democracy

by LELE JANDON

In the debate between the two presidential candidates, American private television CNN played the role of the schoolmarm and forbade them to keep any memo sheets, as if it were a quiz game or an oral exam to two schoolboys. This TV station had no moral scruples in considering that the President in office has a certain age and responsibility. The result of this stupid rule is that the Commander in Chief, without notes and support, has been put in difficulty. In the name of what? To get a wider audience and to make headlines. This ridiculous rigorism is just an example of the TV populism borrowed from reality television shows. Populism comes from Latin “populus”, “the people” (meaning “the majority” or “the crowd”): ask the people what they want and it will be given to them! Do the people, ready with chips and popcorn, want sadistic entertainment (suspense, twists and turns and memory lapses)? Et voilà, here you are served! Candidates, take away the notes! And in fact, as it was expected, Joseph R. Biden Jr., 81 years old like another authoritative liberal-Catholic, the Italian president Sergio Mattarella (who is actually 82), showed uncertainties (which we had already learned about, this is also why we love him: for his humanity).

All the evil comments said they were embarrassed for themselves, for their own party, no one felt empathy for him and put themselves in his shoes. “Biden-is-old”, “Old-is-ugly”, “Old-is-unpresentable”, “Old-is-Out-Of-Fashion”. Sensationalism and Scandalmongering are fundamental ingredients of populism. And populism can be everywhere, also in journalism. In fact, before taking this popular and populist political position against Biden, these “journalists” took into account the results of the various opinion polls carried out in the previous months. All those demoscopic polls (from the Greek “demos”, “the people”), for instance the one taken by the ABC television, revealed that the overwhelming majority of Americans (“the people”) consider Biden “too old”.

All the commentators shouted about the “Senility Scandal” (Italian far-left commentator of Palestinian origins Rula Jebreal said «in the eyes of the Americans he seemed senile»). The real scandal is that there was no live fact checking on Trump’s countless lies: everything was objectively to the disadvantage of the only candidate who believes in the liberal democracy. As if it were not enough, and to further demonstrate that this is not a public service but Pure Populism, this vulgar television conducted a survey among the “people”: it did not ask which of the two had the best arguments but who won, who made at their eyes the best “impression”. The “people” preferred the plastic candidate to the natural candidate. It seemed to be the Sanremo Song Festival where it is normal to read and hear commentators judge the competitors based on their outfit and not on the basis of the song. But politics is a form of art, not a show. And truth is not a jingle. Another arrogant “liberal” media, the daily paper “New York Times”, ruled in an editorial by its “opinionists” that Mr. Biden “must” withdraw. Stupid opinion that has infected not only other “progressive” newspapers but also many financiers, causing a very serious problem for the credibility and unity of the only truly democratic Party and therefore for the stability of American democracy in an election that is decisive for the future not only of Ukraine and NATO but also of the entire (little) free world. It should be remembered that the world-celebrated NYT not only in 2008 did not endorse Barack Obama (who later saved America from Sarah Palin) but in 2016, instead of dedicating journalistic inquiries to the Russian interferences (by means of fake news in favor of Trump), contributed to the defeat of the most qualified candidate ever, Mrs. Clinton, by means of another form of scandalmongering: the so called “email controversy” (that means the fake “emails scandal”). As Secretary of State she had never used her official account for her correspondence, which is irregular but not illegal. Wanting to play at being “influencers” rather than reporters, aspiring to go beyond their role and become protagonists of the theater of politics with an easy populism of British tabloids whose specialty is character assassination (see for example Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan), these failed journalists continue to create cases and messes based on nothing (“Does Biden have Parkinson’s Disease?”). That is packaging fake news. And the press that spreads unfounded alarms is bad press. The British weekly “Economist”, whose editorial policy is to always create a fantasy, sensationalist cover, even dared to put a satirical drawing with a walker instead of Biden’s face on its cover. But politics is a serious matter and ancient Greece shows us that satire and democracy do not go together: let’s not forget that Socrates was mocked at the theater by a comedian before being sentenced to death by his fellow “democratic” citizens. Political correctness, that means respect, is still necessary. Let’s look for example at the disastrous consequences caused by the tolerance towards anti-Semitic satire: I refer to the fact that it has become normal for the American comedians to mock Jews, as Franklin Foer noted at the end of his article “The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending” (published in “The Atlantic” on March 4th). Each of these “media”, who show a high opinion of themselves and a very low opinion of president Biden, should be ashamed of their undue interference. History will judge them with the condemnation they deserve. Who do they think they are, to dictate the party line? How can they exchange good for evil? How can they mistake tenacity for obstinacy? The old age for senility? And what is the difference between the redneck “haters”, the “keyboard warriors”, and these hate speeches against a very respectable elder who saved democracy and put all his effort into saving it again? What is the substantial difference between the common bullying of teenagers and similar mobbing by the “Big Newspapers” against the president? Why, instead of sensationalizing president Biden’s mistakes, didn’t these “liberal” journals insistently ask for the resignation of Trump, found guilty of 34 charges, the first candidate convicted in US history?

Why ageism (the prejudice against the elderly) is now considered to be “politically correct”? Because the self-proclaimed “progressive” media use it. And why do they use it? In order to gain new viewers and more readers and influence politics. Look at the last four years. The far-left American youth movements have constantly caused anti-system agitation that have hit president Biden undeservedly: first the so-called “activists” calling for a stop to funding for the entire police departments (that means defunding the protection of the citizens!), taking as a pretext some cases (statistically irrelevant) of murders by individual bad apples among the policemen; then the “acampados” students who occupied illegally the public spaces of universities (preventing the right to study) shouting criminal slogans against Israel (not against Premier Netanyahu: against the Jewish State!); now, after the anti-police and the anti-Israel movements, it’s time for another extremist movement, that we may call “the Anti-Biden” youth. Look how disrespectful those self-proclaimed “activists” in slippers are towards the President: «Step down for democracy!», «Thank you, next…». They look like voters of Trump, their slogans are equally vulgar.

And the American “Progressive Press”, instead of supporting this great president underlining his historic reforms (that are facts, not opinions), instead of commenting objectively “Well done, Mr. President!”, has given prominence to destructive movements devoid of any credibility, animated only by the desire to destroy and vent their repressed hatred against scapegoats, who shout put completely irrational, impracticable, anti-political and apolitical demands (always against someone, never in favor of something concrete and positive). This is because the desperate press is greedy for new “followers” among illiterate young people (who notoriously no longer have the patience, culture and maturity to read newspapers and present many cognitive handicaps such as difficulty to concentrated and follow University lessons without constantly checking messages on their cell phones, as the American sociologist and psychologist Sherry Turkle notes in her book “Reclaiming Conversation”). There is no justice and no compassion in such deplorable movements. They are fake progressives. In fact, among those “anti-Biden” there is unsurprisingly the Amal Clooney’s husband. Many say he has always been hiding his own homosexuality not to damage his career and to remain popular among the women; his wife is also very narcissistic and as a lawyer brought in front of the ICC the false Islamist accusation against Israel of «intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population». Both of them exploit the cynically exploit such youth trends to gain personal power.

Against these thankless moral idiots, as a true moral leader of the nation, Joseph Biden heroically continues his path with enormous dignity: «No one is more qualified for the presidency than me», he reiterated without false modesty. He is actually the best also (and above all) by virtue of his venerable age and not “despite” his age. By virtue of his experience as a senator and vice President in just four years (but with great influence already as Obama’s deputy) Biden has already been the most reformist President in American history. The progressive leader has already defeated Trump once and is the only man in America capable of defeating him again.

He pointed out: «I’m old, but only three years older than Trump». And he explained that his lack of energy at the recent debate was due to tiredness from too many electoral campaign trips and it is a perfectly credible explanation that should satisfy us. Nancy Pelosi said that it’s not about judging a debate performance but about the performance of a presidency. In fact, not only all the governors of the Democratic Party are on good Joe’s side but also the award-winning Jewish American historian Allan Lichtman who wisely said to the “Wall Street Journal” that Biden must stay in the race (and possibly, in case he is tired, he will give way to the Vice President Kamala Harris). As we all know, Biden made new little blunders later during the exhausting presidential campaign but he immediately corrected himself without the suggestions from collaborators. And even if he had little confusions, I remind you that older people have different times, another rhythm, they are slower and it is normal that many of them may also have a mild neurocognitive disorder that does not create practical problem. They confuse for one moment some things or repeat the same concepts. This is not a Political Problem. Intolerance for old age is a social problem. Biden gaffes makes him as likable as our beloved grandparents.

The most important American Jungian psychoanalyst, James Hillman (1926 – 2011), dedicated his book “The Force of Character” to illustrate his inspirational thesis that old age has the advantage of making character flourish. And Biden demonstrated his strength of Character on this challenging occasion too. President Biden is not only a man of extraordinary political intelligence but he is endowed with an emotional intelligence: his reforms, his policies, his words and his hugs are there to demonstrate it. The American writer Marilynne Robinson said in an interview to the NYT: «I’m less than a year younger than Joe Biden, so I believe utterly in his competence, his brilliance, his worldview. I really do. You have to live to be 80 to find this out: Anybody under 50 feels they’re in a position to condescend to you. You get boxed into this position where people who deal with you are making assumptions about your intellect. It’s very disturbing. Most people my age is just fine. What can I say? It’s a kind of a good fortune that America is categorically incapable of accepting: that someone with a strong institutional memory, who knows how things are supposed to work, who was habituated to their appropriate functioning is president. I consider him a gift of God. All 81 years of him».

All this considered, it’s not that Biden is the wrong candidate. What is wrong is the scale of false values of a hyper-performing, superficial and sick society which now lacks respect even for its great elders. What is morally wrong is the populism of these mass media which, in order to be complacent with their (potential) readers and viewers, illiterate about politics, raise and idolize stupid opinions. As the Italian political scientist Giovanni Sartori (1924 – 2017), Professor at Columbia University, already wrote in his 1997 essay “Homo Videns”, television is bad for democracy, it has become the spokesman of the public opinion. That is often bad and superficial. “Vox populi, vox Dei” (in Latin: “Voice of the people, voice of God”) has always been the Machiavellian motto of the Roman Catholic Church, as the Yale historian John Boswell (1947 – 1994) wrote in one of his fundamental books (“Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality. Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century”, the University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 1980, page 38, Introduction).

Let’s not forget that the masses are serial killers, assassins. And they are now engaging in Joseph Biden’s character assassination. The philosopher Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855) underlined this tragic truth in various books, for instance: «I have never read this commandment in Scripture: you must love the Crowd, Christ never wanted to deal with the Crowd, the Crowd is falsehood, the Christian duty is to turn against the Crowd». Look at a recent example of double standard of the “people”: while the boss of the Catholic Church and Head of State of the Vatican Bergoglio, following the ancient “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” method of government, continues to deny homosexuality as a natural orientation and has just badly reiterated the ban on homosexual men from becoming priests (thus denying a human right, the right to choose one’s own job), on the contrary the most illustrious (together with President Macron) progressive Catholic politician, Joseph Biden, not following the transphobic masses, recognized the injustices suffered by former soldiers convicted only for being gay during their service by granting them the presidential pardon. The former remains popular, the latter is even more and more unpopular: on the one hand we see the genuflections of the masses who idolize the homophobic Pope in a wheelchair (Italian Catholic theologian Adriana Zarri, 1919 – 2010, defined this form of idolatry as “papolatry”), on the other side the masses who mock the US President, a tireless progressive fighter, because he is “too old” (three years older than his opponent). “The People”, idol of right-wing and left-wing populisms, are reconfirmed to be irrational, inconsistent, ungrateful, homophobic and superstitious. Instead of valorizing the extraordinary experience of this great old gentleman who should be the pride of the Nation, and instead of opposing the wisdom of this hero to the populism of the far right, these papers propose another form of populism of the opposite sign: younger-is-better. Taking as a pretext the new trend of scrapping old ones, these bankrupt journalists reduced to newsboys, have created for commercial reasons a daily soap opera (“Does he resign or not?”) which has already caused irreparable damages: it will be their fault, as in 2016, if Trump wins. In her commentary on the ‘Biden-Scandal’ in the Berlin good newspaper “Tagesspiegel”, the German journalist Sabine Rennefanz took the market men’s opinion as her own: «I’d be in favor of an age limit for top political positions». And the same day the very good parliamentarian of the Green Party Renate Künast (who is only 69!) announced her retirement from active politics with these words: «It’s time to make room for the youth». I don’t think that “making room for young people” is a smart trend to be copied from the US. Let’s draw inspiration from the best of America, such as the Experience and Empathy in political art constantly demonstrated by Biden. Long live President Biden! Lele Jandon The original Italian version: http://lelejandon.blogspot.com/2024/07/restiamo-col-presidente-biden.html