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This needs to be said. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, as editorials are often lightning rods for debate. That is fine. This is a discussion that needs to be out in the open.
Former DNC Chair Jamie Harrison lets loose on X, (formerly Twitter) when the President Biden age issue is brought up, yet again.
“I’m tired. And my patience is gone. Some of y’all spent years shit-talking a President who delivered transformative change for poor, working-class, and underrepresented Americans. Because of Joe and Kamala: Insulin is $35/month; thousands freed from crushing student debt; lead pipes removed from poor neighborhoods; new factories and jobs across the country; and judges that actually look like America.
But I shut down credible challengers? Who? Marianne? RFK? Dean? Be serious. What’s truly delusional is how a bunch of privileged guys convinced themselves they “get” the Democratic Party when they can’t even relate to the base of it. We see how you operate. Who you uplift. Who you ignore. And Who you attack over and over again with zero accountability. And let’s be real: You didn’t just come for Joe. You weakened the whole party.
You think those critiques just hurt him? They hit the Senate, the House, the governors, the down-ballot races. All of us. Tell me—when was the last time you stepped into a southern Black church? An urban rec center? A rural town hall? A senior living facility? A military base? I have. For the last four years, I’ve shown up in rural red states and urban blue ones. I’ve sat with folks who are flourishing and those who are barely holding on. If I’m guilty of anything, it’s this: reflecting the values of everyday Democrats who built this party—people who believe in honesty, decency, and loyalty. Was Joe Biden old? Yes. But he was also decent. Honest. Honorable. And he gave this nation everything he had. You want to debate whether he should’ve stepped aside? Fine.
But once he secured the nomination, that was his call to make & not yours. Not mine. Not anyone else’s. A lot of folks, especially Black voters, the backbone of this party, looked around and wondered: Why didn’t we stand by the man who always stood by us? But what do I do now with all this ‘cognitive dissonance’? I’m sure, with all your privileged experience and supposed brilliance, you’ve got the answer.”
Let’s unwrap this. One of the most misunderstood elements of Joe Biden’s success was his immense strength with the minority, especially the African-American base in the party. Joe has always had a strong connection to that element of the base, even before then Senator Obama tapped him to be his running mate.
Jamie is telling us this.
Joe put in the work, all the time not just in late October. Now this isn’t to say that Kamala didn’t-she certainly did, but let’s run an analogical experiment here. You have a doctor. He is an unassuming but absolutely effective doctor. But the hospital group he works for doesn’t like his old school ways. They don’t like his penchant for hand written records, uploaded rather than Word processed.
They don’t like he doesn’t turn over patients quickly-they think he talks too much and want more efficiency. They dislike his unwillingness to bend treatment regimens to please insurance companies. And he just flat looks, well, tired.
Now you have gone to this doctor for years, maybe twenty. He saw you through a cancer scare, a stent, he even called in a prescription in the middle of the night for you-because his patients..gasp..have his personal phone number.
One day you call up that office to schedule your yearlies. Dr. Biden is retired. More to the point, according to the perturbed receptionist, he was obviously and very distastefully pushed out.
Do you continue to make your appointment? Perhaps. But do you show up? Or do you cancel? Check this out:
For patients, some qualitative research suggests that physician retirement, especially in the primary care context, can be associated with poor patient experience, adverse clinical outcomes, and increased use of health care services and higher expenditures. [4][5][6][7] For physicians, many report being concerned about inadequate financial preparations and the loss of identity associated with retirement, among other factors. 8,9 However, these impacts, both patientand physician-focused, can be mitigated with appropriate foresight and planning
Then we have this:
… Thus, it can lead to only fragmented care, poor handover of information and eventually adverse clinical outcomes. Forced discontinuity of care has also been associated with adverse drug events, myocardial infarction and increased mortality [19]. Physicians are aware of these problems, and feelings of personal responsibility for their patients make retirement decisions particularly challenging.
-ROC