Why is it not a good reason? Biden is always committing gaffes. (So is Trump, but that is because Trump is Trump, and was roughly the same man 20 years ago.)
It’s not only a matter of mental capacity when given time to think things over; which some people don’t have much of at any age, and many though not all people retain through old age. It’s also a matter of endurance/stamina and of quickness of reaction.
The Presidency, if done at all properly, is very much a full time job, requiring not only responses well thought out over a period of time, but large numbers of such within any given week on a very wide variety of subjects, and also the ability to respond quickly and properly at any moment to a previously unexpected problem, no matter what was occupying the mind just before that moment or even if one was just woken from deep sleep.
There are lots of people over 65, or over 75 or 85 for that matter, who are entirely capable of considering, over a period of months, who they want to vote for in a particular election, or even in a particular couple dozen of elections; and of filling out their ballots when they’re reasonably rested and not unreasonably rushed. Not all of them are capable of juggling a dozen major decisions at the same time, and doing so day after day after day for four years, sometimes while exhausted or half asleep. Not everybody’s capable of this at 35, either; but the ability in many people diminishes with age. Very few people have the same total energy available to draw on at 80 as they did when they were 40; or the same recovery time from unusual demands on it.
The extent to which this ability diminishes varies widely from person to person; I don’t support a flat out cutoff age for that reason. But it’s entirely reasonable to consider the evidence that a particular candidate is dropping off in ability; and it’s entirely possible for someone to still be easily capable of voting properly, but no longer capable of being POTUS properly – just as it’s entirely possible for somebody to still be able to mow a quarter acre of lawn, but no longer be up to running marathons.
I’m not so sure that this is true.
The best executives are not making huge numbers of decisions quickly and personally handling every unexpected problem. Their talent is in developing excellent teams working under them and managing them well. Included in that is developing the big picture goals and in defining the broad set of tactics to be used by that team that delivers those outcomes. In the case of a president the other key skill is in being able to the effective communicator to the public on a variety of subjects.
An executive who micromanages and is having to constantly make decisions is bad at the job.
Age per se does not impact those skills. I don’t think Bernie possesses any of them but not because of his age.
Same with Biden, Joe has been known (and even loved0 for his Gaffes for decades.
Age is just a bigoted reason.
Argue about their qualifications and their positions, leave the bigotry out of it.
An old 1997 book by Bernie Sanders is causing a lot of outrage on twitter due to the use of the n-word. A revised edition in 2015 which included an audiobook kept it in (and if you listen to it the narrator says the word boldly). Sanders supporters and spokeswoman are arguing that the intent was not discriminatory but trying to apply historical context however it’s raised a debate nonetheless. Many people are not happy that he used that word and many people are not happy that he seemingly was putting white southerners racist attitudes down to economic anxiety rather than bigotry (‘they were given’ implies they were told by some superior to think that way).
In that context, perfectly acceptable.
White people using the word “nigger” for shock effect isn’t so “perfectly acceptable” for you to state it with such confidence.
I guess your copy of Huckleberry Finn is pretty marked up then isnt it?:rolleyes:
Uh, huh. Why don’t you try it at work tomorrow? In fact, don’t even make up your own sentence or take credit for it. Walk up to someone you are friendly with and ask him how they feel about that Sanders quote. No saying “n-word”, quote it completely. Shouldn’t be a problem, as it is perfectly acceptable. If you get negative feedback, remind them that Twain used that word a hundred and thirty years ago with no complaints. I will appreciate you reporting back your results.
Applying 2019 standards to something written in 1997 is a bit silly.
I am unconvinced that “outrage on Twitter” means anything, let alone any real measure of “many people.”
As for the word usage, I would’ve chosen differently. But in the spectrum of when a white person can use that word, using it to discuss the viciously racist perspective of most poor white Southerners during the Jim Crow era has got to be as close as you can ever get to the acceptable end of the spectrum.
Come on, 1997 is out of bounds? In '97, would you have felt it perfectly appropriate making that comment? Just for a relativity reminder, Chris Rock did his controversial “Niggas vs. Black People” bit in '96. Don’t think it was fair game for the Congressman from Vermont.
In that context?
The norm that a white person cannot use the word as a historical object, in quotes, in reference to the words as they were used as tools of oppression in past times, and that writers instead have to state in such a way that it makes it seem like those who were oppressing were saying “n-word” is a very recent thing. I’d say even two years back no academic quoting what a racist had said or illustrating how they thought would have considered substituting the actual word with “n-word.” And I am not so sure many would now.
C’mon.
I’m no Sanders fan but that use in in that context in 1997 is a problem for a very very small bubble.
I don’t think it’s a super big deal. Just thought it was a kind of gross turn of phrase. I think my 28 yr old self in '97 would have agreed.
My 38 year old self would have thought that what was written fairly well made the point that poor southern whites economically abused themselves, were mollified by being placed superior in the social order to a dehumanized other. That gross word was an important part of that process.
But hell my 38 year old self was reading Huck Finn aloud with my then 12 year old and having discussions about it without censoring the words used.
Sanders has not in recent years demonstrated much understanding of how racial factors are independent but synergistic elements of disadvantage with economic factors in this country. That ancient blurb is even about that time as it impacted whites. There is no shortage of problems that he has. Use of that word in that way then is not one of them. IMHO.
Yep.
No, it isn’t. Advanced age diminishes mental acuity. E.g., Trump exhibits signs of Alzheimer’s – his aides have observed Alzheimer’s symptomatic “sundowning.” And there is no reason why a Dem would be immune.
Don’t forget that Bob Dylan used the n-word (See? I’m even afraid to write it out here for clarity) in one of his songs. Gasp!! Boycott his music! Force him to melt down his Nobel Prize and give the proceeds to the NAACP. (No, not that NAACP. The Numskulls Association for Absurd Correctness Political.)
More than just acceptable. Calling attention to the pejorative was essential to provide clarity and emphasis in that quote. Whitewashing the word would whitewash the ugly racism that deployed the word.
There’s a Wikiquote page with this George Wallace quote:
I was out-niggered by John Patterson. And I’ll tell you here and now, I will never be out-niggered again.
Are the Wiki editors also to blame, for not replacing the word, e.g. with the (nonsensical-in-context) ‘out-blacked’? Or ‘out-African-Americaned?’
Yet Sanders’ use of the term is essentially the same as Wiki’s: Wiki is quoting Wallace, Sanders quotes a generic racist.
Twain did not use the n-word for “shock value,” he used it because his characters – white and black – would have.
