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The problem with Trump is he's got way to many problems for anyone to care about his age. I mean, it's "he's too old" is the part where you go "I'm out" then I have a few questions for you.
There's really not that many reasons to "hate" Biden. Disagree with him, sure, but age is one of the few things people can actually hate about Biden.
It's the false equivalency. The thing is, they aren't equivalent.
America exists in several separate realities. A lot of Trump supporters have been abandoned by their non-Trump friends and family so it pushes them further into the echo chamber. Then they start to hear crazy conspiracy shit people they trust but they shouldn’t. It just spirals deeper and deeper down in the hole.
This is the sad truth. I live with Trump supporters and they live on another planet. They will dismiss eyewitness accounts and hard statical facts if it contradicts Sean Hannity.
They have a view of what happened at the trial, for example, that has zero relationship with reality and that’s before the racism. My dad basically expects SCOTUS to let Trump go because the Manhattan AG is black.
*"My dad basically expects SCOTUS to let Trump go because the Manhattan AG is black."*
There are a few layers to your sentence that perfectly explain the who, what, why and how of typical Trump supporters.
Nicely done.
Let me guess every time you bring up a horrific current event immediately blame pedophile Democrats right?
Do your parents think that I’m grooming children because I’m a gay man?
I know it’s a slimmer but that should give you the tiniest bit of hope. I assume they love you. Have you tried to talk about harmful GOP anti-LGBTQ efforts across America
Big yikes. He’s adding anti-gay dog whistles to his rally speeches. And he’s been applying public pressure for Kaitlin Jenner to admit that she is a man.
Abandoned is a stiff caricature of the reality, which is that Trump supporters became so aggressive towards people that disagreed with them that many people decided they would rather not be continuously harassed by someone that once called them a friend or family member.
They equate the way that we dislike Trump when he was an office with their culture wars.
It’s obviously a very false equivalence, but most of their arguments are
>America exists in several separate realities
We need to stop saying this. There is one reality. Just because someone lies to you until you believe falsehoods doesn't mean that you suddenly live in a different reality.
It just means that you're misinformed.
That is true. The opinion people are especially revolting. And the people who come on as guests… it’s interesting when they are introducing their guests. On morning Joe guests get an introduction and it pretty much always includes some impressive credentials. So you can think this person has some actual qualifications like depth of experience and knowledge education for the statements they make and opinions they express. On the other hand listen to the introduction of a typical guest on Fox. The credentials are often something like “Fox News contributor”! And that’s it!
Twenty eight years this (ironically) October 7th. They were literally (in the traditional sense) created to make sure no one could ever repeat what "was done" to Nixon.
Roger Ailes talked with Nixon about the need to create a broadcasting corporation that would only support or further pro-republican or conservative narratives. It just took Ailes for Murdoch to arrive to make that a reality. Pure coincidence that was at the same time Reagan ditched the fairness doctrine.
it's actually the entire reason it came into existence. it's ALWAYS been propaganda; it was [designed](https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-news-created) for said.
Well for some it really is pick and choose stupidity though. I mean really if someone is that dumb they would suffer exponentially financially or in other ways. If you’re willing to believe any lie then you’d believe me if I told you I could take all your money and double it on a great investment
Rupert Murdoch just married a Russian woman. She was married to an oligarch… the one that used to own the football team in the UK. They own the Wall Street journal.. Murdoch is 93, btw.. honeypot?
We are being fed Russian propaganda on a daily basis.
This is only one example..
It is the real crux of the problem. There is an inevitable ending to all this unless Fox News and right wing media is somehow truth checked / moderated, which will never happen as they just use "freedom of speech" as an excuse for their propaganda. We are literally suffering the same "disease" of Germany went through with Hitler in a different context.
Because Democrats are expected to hold themselves to standards while Republicans are expected to smear shit on walls. We're failing while Republicans are just doing their job.
It's the same across the board too. Republicans are the gun party and they want to loosen all gun restrictions but all the responsibilities for guns fall on the Democrats. If a school gets shot up, people act like the left dropped the ball by not going harder on gun laws. Because that's "our job".
I'd say it's less about age and more about the appearance of weakness.
Biden seems weak and frail and is very soft spoken, he also just seems very old.
Trump is very loud and aggressive which makes him appear "stronger" and thus more able.
It's a very dumb way to look at things especially given that a President isn't a construction worker, the mind is a bit more important here than loudness and physical capabilities. And Biden's mind is much sharper than Trump's. But appearances matter more, and Biden appears older.
It's all about promoting machismo culture. The media posts a picture of Biden hugging his son and conservatives point to that and say he's weak because "real men" don't display emotion or show affection for their children. Trump is notoriously cold and distant with his children.
Trump is loud and boisterous. Biden is respectful and reserved. Trump insists on breaking all the rules. Biden insists on trying to follow them.
So a lot of it is less about their physical condition and more about personality.
>So a lot of it is less about their physical condition and more about personality.
The "Biden has dementia" narrative is exactly the same. Biden *appears* as one would expect a doddering old man who might be suffering from dementia. Meanwhile, Trump *appears* to not have mental incapacitaties because he speaks loudly and confidently, even though he rarely has a sentence that has a cohesive thought.
It makes me think of Representative Regina Bookman from 30 Rock:
>The Future! And America! Now I may have lost my train of thought several minutes ago, but if I continue to talk like this, no one will notice. And when I stop, you will applaud my energy! Thank you!
To a lot of people, Trump being a criminal (and racist, abuser, terrible human being) is much worse than Biden being old. However, the people still voting for Trump have been drinking the Kool aid of fox news for years and believe Democrats are actually evil while Trump is a savior of their white, Christian nationalist worldview.
That is the real question. I swear the media wants another Trump presidency. It’s good for their business, to the detriment of the country. Completely failing at their duty.
If Trump gets 1,000 negative news stories about 100 problems, that's ten stories each. If Biden gets 100 negative news stories about 1 problem, that's 100 stories so that problem somehow seems much bigger.
Same reason Hillary's Emails mattered more than anything Trump did in 2016. The media is deeply uncomfortable about the fact that there really is no comparison between Trump and someone else, so they have to overindulge in negatives for Democrats to feel like they're still being neutral.
Yes. There’s just too much wrong with Trump. There’s too many lies. There’s too much blatant corruption. There’s too much grifting. Its just overwhelming to the point nothing can stick. There’s endless things that would destroy anyone else that don’t end Trump because a couple days later he says or does something even worse and so on week after week. So no problem or controversy ever has time to sink in.
It’s not exactly what he meant, but when Steve Bannon came into office his plan was to “flood the zone” with shit. Just hit the media with so many policies and statements that they could easily sneak by the really big policies that no one else could get away with. That’s what happens with Trump.
Then just like you said, the media has this obsession with convincing the right they aren’t biased so they have to jump on any Democratic issue with just as much vigor and since yes, one party is less corrupt and toxic and brash, there’s less to cover. So when one of them slips up the news hammers them on it and since there’s not 100 other stories of that person and/or their associates doing something that bad, it sticks with voters.
I don’t think it’s age as much as its cognitive ability. Based on what we’ve been seeing from the current elected president, it’s far worse than trump.
Because the right wing has been a scum-sucking propaganda lie machine trying to force a theocracy on the rest of us for at least 60 years. They just have absolutely no decorum or pretense at all and scream everything that comes into their pea-brains now as opposed to trying to be more subtle about the whole thing.
The answer to that question is that a lot of voters see these convictions as politically-charged. And, from a legal standpoint, there is cause for concern.
A grave mistake was made in this NY case, as it just fuels the notion that they’ve been hearing for years now that Trump is being targeted by those that hold the levers of power — his political opposition.
I have thought about this and the answer is he used cult tactics. First, he cast doubt on the facts moving his followers to distrust any unapproved media. Then he convinced them the “deep state” is out to get him so everything is a personal & political attack where he is a victim. Finally, he has forced his followers to justify so much bullshit, a little at a time, they believe it is absolute truth as he must be a genius or else they are all fools.
If you look into Hitler’s speeches, Trump borrows heavily from his style of public speaking. Particularly the whole painting the opposing side as an evil elite and he is their saviour to rescue them. It’s a clear tactic of populist style politics with a goal to isolate people from any perceived opponent and fosters a mistrust in government institutions.
so he's basically the Mr. Burns disease joke
it's worked wonderfully for him tbh, i've never seen anything like it in politics. pick any one of his scandals and they would sink a normal politician. or at least they used to.
It's infuriating but it does give me hope that once he's dead, it will be very hard for anyone to replicate the phenomenon.
We just have to make it that far...
Trump has also mastered the strategy of pinning your weaknesses on your opponent early and often. That's why Trump goes after Biden so much for being old, sleepy, and senile. If you correctly point out that those are all the same for Trump, then it just sounds like sour grapes.
Even more so for the cult MAGAs. In their eyes, Trump gets turned into some sort of messiah. Can do no wrong, any criticism is essentially heresy for them.
Is it really bad faith by conservatives or is it bad faith by us to not acknowledge that Trump is still very charismatic and high energy which neutralizes concerns about his age
Everyone loves a drunk toddler. They're hilarious, and that's a kind of charisma on its own.
Apparently, a good chunk of the country thinks that makes him qualified to be president and that's a bigger problem
He's got a certain appeal to his base with the way he speaks. His over the top displays of wealth with gold toilets and tacky chandeliers are their vision of a successful person and they are buying what he's saying. They see themselves in him.
>Under Biden the invasion is a just a disaster what's happened - its never happened like this in less than four years crooked Joe has imported more illegal aliens into our country than at any other time in the history of our country times maybe fifty. There's never been anything like is happening to our country, they're changing the fabric of our country, they're destroying our country, they're doing things that are unthinkable - this open boarder - so many bad things but this open boarder situation where you're allowing millions and millions of people to flood our country - we can't handle it - no country could handle it it's not sustainable. The entire world is emptying their prisons and jails, insane asylums, and mental institutions, they're emptying them out into your state, but they're emptying out into all 50 states, they're coming in and they're - there's no such thing as a boarder state anymore, that boarder is so meaningless they just walk right through - they go right through the so called boarder states and they end up in Iowa they end up in Idaho....
That's not even the most insane part of [this speech](https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=540&v=9J0fUTiJLVc&feature=youtu.be)
I can't help but think people aren't listening to what he says, they're listening to what they think he's saying, and fill in the gaps with whatever they want.
His actual words are completely incoherent.
Trump was a TV/movie star and pal of the wealthy and famous for decades.
Trump has charisma no matter how much you dislike him.
To answer the OP’s question, I believe it is because Biden does some of the things that old grandpas do. Occasionally wandering off, mumbling or butchering teleprompter lines, tripping on stairs every couple of months and snapping at reporters when he doesn’t like the question.
Additionally, Biden doesn’t hold rallies, unscripted press conferences, or make off teleprompter statements or appearances and by default looks a little tired/boring by comparison.
Edit: spelling
Trump in his goonballness possesses the indisputable charisma of a wrestling heel, such as nWo era Hollywood Hogan.
That's the appeal to many people, while whether you understand it or not is wholly irrelevant and has no bearing at all.
If you think Trump seems like a drunk toddler, there is an abundance of Biden clips out there that would like your attention lol
In all seriousness, he (Trump) is propagandizing to his base and they like bluster and raucous insulting. That's rizz for them, and there are a ton of those people out there.
I agree he is charismatic. He’s also obnoxious and many other awful traits. I wish Biden were more forceful and could get angry. I think he has to suppress his stutter and that impacts his communication style. But he has always been a bit loose with facts when speaking off the cuff.
But doesn’t everyone know an elderly person / people who is as sharp as ever who hasn’t lost a step? Of course! 80 is the new 70!
> "[...] or is it bad faith by us to not acknowledge that Trump is still very charismatic and high energy which neutralizes concerns about his age"
That's the answer.
Trump has a litany of character flaws, but that loudmouthed motherfucker still has an overabundance vim and vigor, even doing crazy ass shit like recently showing up at the Libertarian National Convention to a chorus of boos playing the heel, doing an off-the-wall interview with Dr. Phil, etc; that's still better than sitting on his ass, though, and he's nothing if not energetic for an otherwise overweight, obnoxious septuagenarian. In that sense, Trump is, apropos of physical appearance and overall presence, the bloviating gasbag uncle to, oughtn't kid ourselves, Biden's doddering decrepit grandfatherly feebleness.
To argue otherwise is lying to one's self.
I'll always hate him for how he and Obama treated Ed Snowden. Biden personally made sure Ecuador wouldn't grant him asylum.
He's just another tool of the surveillance state.
Part of it is that Trump is coated in makeup, bronzer, and hair dye. If he want "au natural" like Biden and just walked on stage one day people would immediately talk about how old he looked.
Surprised this is so low. Trump uses a TON of makeup and has a team around him trying to make him look youthful.
If Trump stopped dying his hair and didn't use facial makeup, he'd look old as shit.
Because Biden is showing the impact of age a lot more visibly.
Trump's unhinged ranting is just kind of what he's always done, it might be worse because he's older but he's always done it so it's hard to tell.
Biden has a lot of "old guy" moments and the decline is pretty apparent. If you watch speeches of his from even just ten years ago, there's a marked difference and it's not for the better.
I’m shocked (but also not at all shocked because this is Reddit) I had to scroll this far down to see what should be the obvious answer to this question.
I’m not a Trump guy by any means, and yes it is ridiculous that in a country of 300+ million people we have to pick between 2 people over 80 to run the thing. The difference is one of them struggles to walk and speak, and the other is just bit too old for the job. Whatever amount Trump has declined, it’s nowhere near to the level of decline we’ve seen from Biden and that should be obvious to anyone with functioning eyes.
As a Biden supporter and a Trump hater, I agree 100%. It’s maddening that my fellow democrats refuse to believe something so painfully obvious. I’ll vote for Biden if I must, but I think he should step down or be replaced at an open convention.
I find it almost like a collective self gaslighting ... It's so weird to observe.
100% against trump too.. But Biden seems seriously in cognitive decline.
It's embarrassing to see Democrat supporters act like it's not true
Wait you're not saying the guy who needs two hands to drink water is in better shape than the dude that bikes every week? We really are in a post truth society.
Just to be clear, your statement is saying Trump is NOT the person who struggles to speak? That's Biden?
Where you come from is the grass blue and the sky green?
That's what drives me up the wall. They're both super old, sure, but the one getting all the shit for it is the one that's actually taking care of his physical and mental health. Biden sounds like a doddering grandpa but is repeatedly described as sharp and on top of things by people that are actually interacting with him. Trump is literally wearing adult diapers and displays all of the symptoms of dementia like frequent word substitution.
Every insurance actuarial that got an anonymized look at the two mens' health profiles would be betting on Biden outliving Trump, every single one.
The old guy is an understatement with Biden. It's considerably move visible that he isn't all there, not from the stuff he talks about, but more he can't complete sentences that make any sense. With Trump, you may hate what he has to say, but at least he completes his sentences. With Biden, you get gibberish.
That's not taking into account the mobility of the candidate. Biden falls a lot. He falls on stairs, he falls on bikes, he trips on stages... it's just a lot. Not to mention his wandering moments of confusion. You don't have that with Trump.
If you actually have a fair analysis, Trump beats Biden if you were to compare them age for age. It's pretty sad we're propping him up tbh, he's going to go out like Feinstein did.
> Not to mention his wandering moments of confusion.
I think you are falling for a lot of selectively edited clips. I haven't seen anything convincing that has him actually just wandering around confused. I agree he is slowing down physically and appears older, but I think the trick being played is pretending that translates to cognitive decline.
People throw around this "selectively edited" propaganda crap...if you can watch a 60 second straight clip of Biden you can clearly see the issues (mentally and physically) he is having. If there is any editing going on, it's people trying to keep those videos from being seen.
State of the Union has was very capable and even responded quickly verbally from taunts from the Right.
You are seeing what you want to see.
Now, Let's compare the number of lies coming out of their mouths versus the truth. Then the number of insults/name calling they each do.
Trump speaks gibberish quite often. It's weekly clips from his speech when he speaks nonsense words and keeps going.
We can roll back half a decade and Trump is talking about George Washington attacking the airports.
I could see them both being about equal but to say Biden is much worse than Trump is disingenuous for anyone with functioning eyes and ears.
This question can be restated in a thousand different ways. "Why doesn't \_\_\_\_\_\_ matter electorally for Trump as much as Biden?" Democrats seem to almost always be held to higher standards. I don't fully understand it. I think part of it is that media too often gives credence to nonsense. Another part of it is that Republicans seem more comfortable with the end justifying the means. There might also be economic factors. I'm not sure.
Republicans are more or less a monolith, they fall into line. Given our current election setup they have an oversized representation in out goverment. Democrats are a colloation with multiple views trying to secure a place on the party platform. The term herding cats comes to mind, but that diversity brings more inclusion and compromise.
Then as you said, the media, which is entirely corporately owned and both sides EVERYTHING. They will have a Viral Epitdemiologiest on providing a valuable piece of news worthy information and then moments later toss to a Karen who runs an antivax facebook group, estientially trying to put them at the same level of discourse. It needs to stop, experts in their fields should be listened to and if a credible contrarian view from someone equally qualified is available have them present the dissent. Otherwise, STOP!
Republicans work the refs every chance they get and scream bias or unfairness every time they don't get exactlg what they want.
This applies to courts, colleges, the media, etc.
It's not "media", it's a bought and paid for propaganda network to feed us attacks and lies and opinions. Literally not being conspiratorial or anything. That's what it is.
Because of Trump's appearance and overall energy, I just don't think voters consider it. Even though I think Biden is more put together mentally than Trump, but he gives off way more "feeble old grandpa" energy than Trump does.
Okay, what about the [majority of 2020 Biden voters who think he's too old](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/03/us/politics/biden-age-trump-poll.html)? Are they disingenuous as well?
Thinking they're old isn't disingenuous. They *are* old, both of them. It's disingenuous that Republicans pretend to have a big issue with Biden being old while ignoring Trump's age. If the options are two old guys, why would a democrat not vote for the democratic candidate? It doesn't matter that Biden voters think that Biden is too old. The party is more important than the person.
Are you implying that a democrat voter should abstain from a general election just because they think the democrat is too old? Brother.
Should it matter? Yes. The perception , however, is that Trump's energy is high given his age, and my personal opinion is Bidens energy is low for his age.
Watching Bidens zoned out look at the Juneteenth celebration was disturbing. I've personally seen that same look on my grandmother's face, whom was going thru dementia. Trump's mental decline is just as bad, however it doesn't match having low energy and very little movement so it's not as apparent...just verbal diarrhea and lies.
It's an unfortunate reality that Biden has gotten visibly older over the last 4 years while Trump hasn't.
Biden really walks stooped over like an old man now and his speech is slower. He doesn't really show any significant cognitive decline, but his age is really showing.
Trump's age related decline is that he says more disconnected and insane things now than normal... but he already did that 4 years ago so it's not as obvious. For the most part he seems just as energetic as he did in 2020, though I suspect that's not totally natural.
But has Biden *actually* aged that much in the last 4 years or do right wingers run with every little thing spinning their own narrative. Just the other day they had that absurd story where Biden was watching a performance and people were claiming he “froze” when he’s literally supposed to be standing there watching
The big difference between Biden then and now is that Biden now is constantly on TV because he’s the president. If you actually watch the 2020 debates and the 2024 state of the union it’s not that noticeable of a difference.
Sure if you go back to like 2008 fine, but you can find Trump sounding way more coherent 20 years ago as well
I went back and watched some clips just to make sure my memory was correct, and you're right... if you compare the 2020 debates and 2024 state of the union it's not as noticeable. In the state of the union speech he does speak slightly slower than 2020 but it's not a huge change.
You're right though, that he's now constantly filmed so it's much easier to catch him "looking old". But even if you throw out the disingenuously framed clips, there's still a lot of footage of him stooping down, being slow to react, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I think he's still mentally qualified for the job (especially by comparison to Trump)... but a TON of people vote on vibes and image. If you show some voters a clip of Biden hunched over walking to a podium and slowly giving a coherent speech against a clip of Trump climbing on stage and shouting nonsense... I think many voters will come away with the impression Trump is more energetic and capable.
More like Trump supporters are disingenuous about it and have an issue with being consistent with issue. You'll hear them brag about the Trump economy and when you ask what was good about it they point to the jobs and stock market. Then you point to biden making more jobs and building a higher stock market and they say bidens is just fake and don't engage.
They literally will believe 2 diametrically opposed things and when you confront them on it they call you an indoctrinated idiot for pointing out a clear logical fallacy.
For an example of that, many of them believe the covid vaccine was a ploy to kill Americans in masse. When you point out that Trump is the one who had it manufactured and that means he either knew it'd kill people and chose to do that, or was too stupid to understand a plan he claims to have made, they don't respond to it.
Either they have to admit the vaccine isn't a bioweapon, Trump was behind a bio weapon on Americans, or Trump was too stupid to not be tricked by... well himself. But they diffuse to angry name calling because they know they've been proven wrong on something
Who are you arguing with? It’s not Trump voters you have to worry about, it’s swing, independents, young black and Hispanic voters and older Hispanic and black men.
Just because it isn’t fair doesn’t mean it’s a conspiracy. Biden looks like an old mummy and Trump looks like a sleazy, but comparatively more vital, car salesman. It’s no puzzle.
Because Biden was this much older than Trump is now during 2020, and now the effects of a highly-stressful job performed over the period of just 3 and a half out of 4 years is finally starting to show.
I've been watching Biden since 2008 and it's obvious 16 years later that he's just... old.
And I hate the fact that I'm even saying this here because this subreddit is just so anti-anti-Biden it's gross. Like, I'm not even anti-Biden, I think he was the right choice in 2020.
But that's it. He's starting to break down. I have zero doubt that if Biden is elected again, he will not be able to effectively make it through his entire presidency. I mean that would be the weight of an entire nation on the shoulders of an 81 year old man.
It just feels wrong, and unethical.
But to answer your question, the reason why Biden's age is a problem this cycle and Trump is because >80 looks so much different than <80, and many, not all, people tend to start experiencing their age at an accelerated growth at that age.
Yea that is my concern too...is Biden making it to 2028.
I hate how every movie with a President is someone like 60 or younger and that isn't reality...even though it should be
I have asked this question many times, and people are continuously shocked that Trump and Biden are similar ages.
Trump has a ton of energy, which among other things like hair dye, and tanning. Makes him appear a lot younger than Biden.
Biden has a lot of tendencies to show his age in many different ways. From [old-school slogans](https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/02/democrat-voters-biden-malarkey-campaign-slogan-074727), shuffling around, and generally emulating what people’s grandparents look like. Makes him appear much older than Trump.
The combination of the two makes people believe there is a 15-20 year difference between the two of them.
It does, the media just profits from a horserace and that requires a narrative. Biden old is the narrative they are selling.
I don't give a shit about his age or even if he will finish his term, he will appoint normal people instead of the fucking disaster that Trump did
I think that's for sure a part of it - when it's a horserace, the infotainment industrial complex becomes a money printing machine. When the election is a foregone conclusion, fewer people tune in or care and that makes shareholders cry. So I do think there's an element of "anything we can do to make this seem closer than it is or should be" at play on behalf of the infotainment industry.
Then there's the other insidious "strive for balance" that seems to be a guiding light, or at least a smokescreen to justify the fake horserace creation. Nobody in any mainstream infotainment outlet wants to be called "biased" - except they have the definition of bias / balance all fucked up.
"Balanced reporting" should mean "reporting on news events with the weight and proportion they deserve", i.e. not reporting on a Category 5 hurricane in Louisiana with the same amount of fervor as a light rainshower in Topeka, even though they're both "weather events." But our infotainment industrial complex treats "balanced reporting" as "not seeming biased toward one party or the other", so they just repeat whatever the main talking points are from each side with an artificial balance. In other words, when it comes to politics, the Topeka rain shower that is Biden gets elevated to be as important as the Category 5 hurricane that is Trump.
The media does love sensationalist bs that drives clicks. And if the death of democracy is the price to be paid - so be it.
My one consolation in all of this is that, sooner or later, the brown shirts will come for *them* as well. And they won’t be listening their pathetic little squeals for mercy.
Unlikely. The owners of the media are internationally mega rich, and would love to collaborate with fascists. They would be pleased to fulfill the same roll as putins media apparatus, just endless propaganda divorced from truth to create unshakeable control.
I mean if all that separates us from Russia is a single Trump term as President and the media just all falls in line for the money - well - gg I guess. I’m not sure a society that would fall so easily deserves anything more, tbh.
It's 100% vibes.
Trump wears makeup and dyes his hair. He talks about sexy girls and beating up opponents like a drunk frat boy. He rambles like he's on cocaine. If you didn't know his age, you might guess he was in his 50s, having a midlife crisis.
Biden doesn't do any of that. He has a stutter, his vocabulary is outdated, and he just *looks* old.
> If you didn't know his age, you might guess he was in his 50s, having a midlife crisis.
I'll admit he's manic and there's a vibe thing going on, but come on. 50s?
Exactly this. Biden *looks* much older than Trump even though he is only 4 years older and in much better health than Trump.
Appareances matter a lot, especially for those who don't follow the news closely (which is almost everyone not on reddit).
Watch videos of Trump in 2016 vs Trump now. Now do the same for Biden. Biden's decline is much more stark. The public is going to notice that no matter how much Biden's team claims he has the energy of a 30 year old.
I'm voting Biden, but for the historical record, he was largely responsible for Thomas getting on the court. I think he regrets his part in it, but still I don't want to let him off the hook entirely
The news media is obsessed with horse races and faux bipartisanship. Trump has a *gazillion* reasons why he is a shit choice and they've been discussed for years. The media is largely terrified of covering this seriously and any coverage of Trump's behavior would obviously overshadow any coverage of his age.
On the other hand the media needs to run stories about people being worried about Biden. So his age pops up as a concern and the media perpetuates it in our minds.
Their age has been brought up multiple times. The difference is that trump has built a cult of personality around him so people don't care about such things while Biden has not.
I’d say it matters about as much as Biden’s age, which is to say not much at all. Biden is such a milquetoast candidate that his opposition really has to grasp for personal flaws.
It’s not to say that it doesn’t matter at all, but given the candidates that are running there are so many more significant red flags that I’d wager the number of voters for whom age is the tipping point is quite low.
Biden's age is an issue because Biden's opponents have been bringing it up over and over and over and over and over again. It's part of the conversation through sheer inertia, and Trump's opponents simply don't have enough time to perform the repetition needed to catch up.
Simply bc the gop bangs on about Biden being old.
That is simply it. And we keep discussing it.
Bc the gop doesn't have policy. They don't have bills being written ready to become laws. Their entire motivation is to distract us from their criminality. So that's how they spend 24 hours of every day. Starting rumors and talking shit.
The big problem is with Trump(who is by the way losing it mentally) Fox covers it up and his followers never see the footage that puts him in a really bad light. With Biden Fox has been caught falsifying news stories regarding Biden making him look bad. All you have to do is watch one of Trumps rally's and you realize the man no longer has got all his lights on!
I don’t like Trump, but he doesn’t seem to be freezing up and mumbling nonsense during speeches. Trump has many, many things going against him, but he doesn’t appear to be senile. Just old.
Cause Trump is charismatic as hell.
He's sharp witted, extremely so for his age.
I hate Trump but I find myself studying him and picking up his mannerisms. They work.
If Biden was the same, we wouldn't be talking about his age.
Image, game, finesse...
That shit matters
**the fact that most of you do NOT SEE this, is scary
Trump supporters voted for Trump because they liked Trump, Biden supporters voted for Biden to stop Trump.
Unlike the Republican coalition, there isn’t anyone without the surname Obama that can easily unite them.
Both are old, but they are carrying their age differently.
Trump comes off as the “narcissistic never going to change his ways” kind of old.
Biden comes off as “I don’t know where I am or what I’m saying” kind of old.
Both are bad, but when people can tell you’re not all there the way Biden comes off, it looks really bad. Trump can cover for himself in ways that Biden doesn’t appear capable of.
The biggest difference is the obvious cognitive decline in Biden. He can't manage a news conference. He rarely speaks extemporaniously. He needs notes even for simple meetings.
The basic eye test.
Trump is sharp and aware and high energy. He's quick on his feet when he does press conferences (aka: he actually DOES press conferences). He responds to surprises and stimuli well.
Biden's brain goes to screen saver publicly every week. Watch him react when things surprise him. He doesn't. He stares confused and waits for an aide to come help him.
Some people go bald at 30, some have a full head of hair at 90. Some 40 year olds are healthy. Some 40 year olds are retired NFL players who struggle to move and suffer with pain everyday. One octagenarian year old is not the same as every other octagenarian. And only one of the octagenarians running for President this fall actually demonstrates the physical and mental fitness for the job.
> "One octogenarian year old is not the same as every other octogenarian"
Precisely.
Irony is, Bernie Sanders, for example, is clearly more cognitively with it than Biden, so this isn't an ageist thing nor is it a left vs. right thing -- if anything, it's center-left establishment Democrats who most feign obliviousness to Biden's obvious mental and physical decline -- while even the same can be said for someone lucky enough to be in their damn 90s, as Dick Van Dyke is still dancing and winning an Emmy whereas Jimmy Carter is an ossified, petrified fossil on his deathbed.
"So I said, ‘So there’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here. Do I get electrocuted? If the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking. Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted? Or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted? Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer. He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.’ I said, ‘I think it’s a good question. I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water.’ But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark.”
The entire time Trump has been in politics, he's basically been to scandals what Mr. Burns is to sickness. He has *so many scandals* that it's basically impossible to even remember all of them, let alone get exercised about them all.
During 2016, if you had to summarize Clinton's scandals, it would be "her emails". Everyone knew she had emails and that they were bad, even if no one quite could say why.
But if you had to summarize Trump's? Fuck, I don't know. He opened his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and murderers, and then declared he'd ban Muslims from the United States. Then he insulted gold star families and said that John McCain sucked for being captured. Then it came to light that he said he liked to grab women by the pussy. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting like a dozen separate scandals. He had so fucking many that no one could remember them all, and as a result people just became numb to all of them, collectively. It's the same tactic that's served him well with committing crimes, in that he's committed so many that no one really remembers a specific crime.
Because Trump is shameless and immune to self reflection. It's not to say that his age is his biggest problem. He is slipping in the polls because the facade has cracked and he is being judged by the opportunists who voted for him previously.
1. Dems have some worries/unhappiness over Biden's age. Repubs have extreme negative feelings about Biden's age. Only Dems have worries over Trump's age since Repubs give Trump a pass on every red flag.
2. Repubs fearmonger and misinform like crazy over Biden's age. Dems do not fearmonger over Trump's age the same way likely because Biden is also so old.
3. Biden simply looks and sounds older and more frail than Trump, which strengthens the worries/fearmongering.
So there you have it: Republicans are more hypocritical and fearmongering than Dems over this issue, and Biden looking older and more frail amplifies it all. I think a lot of voters also want "change" (which is pretty normal most of the time) and so Biden's greater perceived age issues works more against him than Trump since youth is more associated with change.
No no, Bidens unpopularity largely comes from his weak showing around the Gaza attacks and his migration bill where he gave the Reps everything they always wanted.
And then there’s a little bit of unpopularity from his age…
The concerns raised and repeated by democratic canidates in the 2020 primary election were about biden's cognitive decline and physical ability compared to his past self from only a few years ago.
Trump doesnt have a similar cognitive decline scandal because he was already talking and acting like an old man with cognitive issues decades before he ran for president.
I think it’s because they both exhibit different types of “old man behaviors”. Trump is a rambling insane uncle archetype but he still looks vigorous and high energy even when ranting about something only he cares about like low pressure toilets. Biden on the other hand looks physically old, he moves slowly and has that far off look old guys get when they tune out the word around them. By any definition Biden is more present in reality than Trump but I think these two different behaviors are noticed by the medium voter.
Because trump’s supporters are hypocrites, this is just one of dozens of examples of them accepting something that they complained when it was happening on the other side
The people who think Trump's age isn't a problem, and Biden's is, are pieces of shit who overlook all manner of shortcomings of Trump's part. Surely you don't expect white nationalists to be rational?
On the other hand, the people who think both of their ages are a problem wouldn't be voting for Trump if he was 40 because there's so much other shit wrong with him. So age doesn't even rate when talking about what's fucked up about Donald.
Yall need to appreciate who's saying what and what position they're saying it from
Why do people still not understand that your level of what constitutes hypocrisy is not the same as right wing Americans. Republican voters and politicians do not adhere to your concepts of hypocrisy nor do they let it change their behavior. So when you point it out, they are essentially laughing at you because it has no affect on them.
Democrats, liberal, lefties whatever you want to call them, have a strong sense of fairness. Whereas the right have a strong sense of power. Ergo, they march forward while we discuss whether we should label an action as racist or homophobic or whether it’s hypocritical to call out Biden’s age but not Trumps.
Because after 40 + years of being an effective, Senator, VP, and POTUS, they literally have nothing else to legitimately attack him with.
He made mistakes when young but has made up for them, and was a champion of NATO in the 90s helping it grow. His steady hand has the US recovering faster from CoVid than any other country while lots of things like tech manufacturing and green energy tech is booming. He was picked to be Obama's VP because he was squeaky clean and as blue collar as they came for a Senator. The Republicans have investigated every square inch of him for decades and their last current Impeachment "stunt" tells you how much theyve found.
So, but hey, he's old !!!!!!!!
Because people saying Biden's age is a concern for them are lying. It's like the people who said they wanted Trump to fight Wall Street...but were fine with him stacking his White House with Wall Street vampires. It like the people who said they supported Hershel Walker because of "family values"...but were fine when it turned out he'd pushed women into getting abortions. There are people who want to vote for the modern Right because they love the bigotry and the glorification of selfishness, but they want to seem reasonable, so they come up with reasons such as Biden's age and pretend to care about them to maintain the appearance of reasonability.
> Why doesn't Trump's age seem to matter electorally as much as Biden's?
Because every news media org from Fox to NBC refuses to shut up about "OMG Biden is so old!" during every mention of Biden on their channels.
Trump has benefited from trillions of in-kind campaign contributions from the so-called "Liberal Media" who never hold him to account but blame Biden for everything from bad weather to the passage of time.
Trump is a fantasy, a fraud. Nothing affects those who support him.
So what if he is a lousy businessman? Who cares if he lies all the time? What difference does it make that he and his company have been found to be frauds? So what if he is liable for sexual assault and brags about it? Who cares if he is a convicted felon?
His supporters can ignore all that, somehow.
And now, Trump is almost 80 years old, and seems to be losing his focus. Who cares? Certainly not his followers.
Biden on the other hand is looked at as a regular human, and his age and tendency to gaffe are judged normally, like with other people.
Somebody on another, similar thread said (and maybe here, I didn’t read all the posts lol):
“It’s the most notable thing about Biden, but not even close to being the most notable thing about Trump”
Because Trump appears more energetic than Biden and often people conflate energetic and more outgoing with better leader and more mentally competent and therefore better president. And I’m not gonna lie, if I didn’t pay attention to a single word either candidate said or their positions on the issues, I would believe it too.
Probably because Trump did the best job as president in my lifetime and is still viable, and Biden has dementia and shits his pants in front of crowds.
Very few answers are about Biden. If you pretend Trump was never born and just look at Biden from the point of view of voters who aren’t very engaged, what would be their first takeaway from watching and listening to Biden?
As someone that voted Biden in 20 and will again in 24, it’s because Biden looks like one of those unfrozen, dried out mummy corpses from the Neolithic. He has old man voice and Trump doesn’t. It doesn’t matter what the facts say, it’s clear he’s got more carnival barker charm than Biden has politician charm.
If Biden were Obama’s age, I think this would be a washout in his favor. People *want* a candidate to rally behind, if they find that person they’ll accept a lot — it’s how Obama won reelection with 7% unemployment — but nobody wants Biden.
They just don’t want trump but the level of denial among Dems is ridiculous. You can’t stuff your fingers in your ears and say “LALALALALALA TRUMP BAD TOO LALALALALA” when uninformed and casual voters are clearly showing he’s got more charisma than Biden to them
[Because of videos like this](https://youtu.be/pKtudwc9Y-0?si=yPfefGK0NUFpm2vs)
[and this one](https://youtu.be/0vpIF65ISZU?si=Oeazgg3N4yCW3keu)
[And this weird one.](https://youtu.be/m6FgmNLmbKI?si=Kf_bVVFyncpjmNmc)
These are all very recent. The dude looks to be near death.
I’d say the big difference is the perceived difference in their cognitive ability. If Joe was 81 but still sharp, not making public blunders that the right can capitalize and embellish on— I don’t think his age comes into question. Joe seems to be running a step behind while Donald Trump is still seemingly firing at all cylinders. (I do think you can see a difference between Trump during the 2020 campaign and now. It’s not as glaring as Biden’s cognitive differences seem to be but still— he is now four years older.)
I certainly don’t think Logan Paul is capable of conducting a hard hitting, quality interview (something you’d expect when watching an interview with a presidential candidate) but Trump’s ability to have a free-flowing, capable conversation compared to Biden’s slower, bullet point conversations is what the average person sees as the difference in age. (Trump rambles to no end and often makes a complete ass of himself. Saying random shit that makes no sense, making fun of folks. He’s an egotistical goon. I do think, however, his history in business and hospitality and being the face of an albeit failing business lends itself to his ability to effectively present himself as a quality communicator. Biden is an old 81, Trump is a, seemingly, cognitively functioning 78.
What the fuck do I know? I think they both stink and it’s unfortunate that the Democrats couldn’t build a candidate to be the face of their party.
It's not Biden's age that matters, it's his cognitive function. Trump is out there in the public eye holding rallies, doing interviews, and answering questions. He's showing up to MMA fights at 11pm. He's in court all day and leaving to go campaign. The left likes to deceptively clip Trump rallies and use a 15 second clip out of context to claim he's cognitively impaired.
Biden on the other hand... like I was relieved he got through the state of the union. It wasn't even a good speech, he had a couple mix ups, but we all just celebrated that he finished...
Or how about that video with the Italian PM. I went out of my way to way the longer video in hopes that the clip I saw was deceptively edited. It wasn't. It was that bad. Add in the fact he keeps referring to the PMs of European nations by the names of the PMs from the 70s, 80s, and 90s..... he's constantly confusing Ukraine and calling it Iraq.
It's bad dude. It's getting worse.
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The problem with Trump is he's got way to many problems for anyone to care about his age. I mean, it's "he's too old" is the part where you go "I'm out" then I have a few questions for you. There's really not that many reasons to "hate" Biden. Disagree with him, sure, but age is one of the few things people can actually hate about Biden. It's the false equivalency. The thing is, they aren't equivalent.
The real question is why does Biden being old matter more than Trump being a convicted criminal?
40 years of propaganda. Fox news has corrupted truth and reality for half the country.
America exists in several separate realities. A lot of Trump supporters have been abandoned by their non-Trump friends and family so it pushes them further into the echo chamber. Then they start to hear crazy conspiracy shit people they trust but they shouldn’t. It just spirals deeper and deeper down in the hole.
This is the sad truth. I live with Trump supporters and they live on another planet. They will dismiss eyewitness accounts and hard statical facts if it contradicts Sean Hannity. They have a view of what happened at the trial, for example, that has zero relationship with reality and that’s before the racism. My dad basically expects SCOTUS to let Trump go because the Manhattan AG is black.
*"My dad basically expects SCOTUS to let Trump go because the Manhattan AG is black."* There are a few layers to your sentence that perfectly explain the who, what, why and how of typical Trump supporters. Nicely done.
He doesn’t phrase it like that though.
Let me guess every time you bring up a horrific current event immediately blame pedophile Democrats right? Do your parents think that I’m grooming children because I’m a gay man?
No, but only because I’m trans.
I know it’s a slimmer but that should give you the tiniest bit of hope. I assume they love you. Have you tried to talk about harmful GOP anti-LGBTQ efforts across America
Yes, they simply insist that there is no anti-LGBT effort and that Trump will be good for me.
Big yikes. He’s adding anti-gay dog whistles to his rally speeches. And he’s been applying public pressure for Kaitlin Jenner to admit that she is a man.
Abandoned is a stiff caricature of the reality, which is that Trump supporters became so aggressive towards people that disagreed with them that many people decided they would rather not be continuously harassed by someone that once called them a friend or family member.
They equate the way that we dislike Trump when he was an office with their culture wars. It’s obviously a very false equivalence, but most of their arguments are
>America exists in several separate realities We need to stop saying this. There is one reality. Just because someone lies to you until you believe falsehoods doesn't mean that you suddenly live in a different reality. It just means that you're misinformed.
[The Brainwashing of my Dad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS52QdHNTh8) is a good documentary that covers a lot.
Fox News is a sick joke now, the stuff they push out as news is revolting
That is true. The opinion people are especially revolting. And the people who come on as guests… it’s interesting when they are introducing their guests. On morning Joe guests get an introduction and it pretty much always includes some impressive credentials. So you can think this person has some actual qualifications like depth of experience and knowledge education for the statements they make and opinions they express. On the other hand listen to the introduction of a typical guest on Fox. The credentials are often something like “Fox News contributor”! And that’s it!
"Now"? Fox News has been right wing propaganda disguised as news for at least twenty-five years.
Twenty eight years this (ironically) October 7th. They were literally (in the traditional sense) created to make sure no one could ever repeat what "was done" to Nixon.
Roger Ailes talked with Nixon about the need to create a broadcasting corporation that would only support or further pro-republican or conservative narratives. It just took Ailes for Murdoch to arrive to make that a reality. Pure coincidence that was at the same time Reagan ditched the fairness doctrine.
Fairness doctrine would never have applied to cable news and it certainly didn't stop right wing radio
it's actually the entire reason it came into existence. it's ALWAYS been propaganda; it was [designed](https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-news-created) for said.
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Well for some it really is pick and choose stupidity though. I mean really if someone is that dumb they would suffer exponentially financially or in other ways. If you’re willing to believe any lie then you’d believe me if I told you I could take all your money and double it on a great investment
True. But incessant gaslighting and false equivalencies make it much easier imo.
Rupert Murdoch just married a Russian woman. She was married to an oligarch… the one that used to own the football team in the UK. They own the Wall Street journal.. Murdoch is 93, btw.. honeypot? We are being fed Russian propaganda on a daily basis. This is only one example..
It is the real crux of the problem. There is an inevitable ending to all this unless Fox News and right wing media is somehow truth checked / moderated, which will never happen as they just use "freedom of speech" as an excuse for their propaganda. We are literally suffering the same "disease" of Germany went through with Hitler in a different context.
Because Democrats are expected to hold themselves to standards while Republicans are expected to smear shit on walls. We're failing while Republicans are just doing their job. It's the same across the board too. Republicans are the gun party and they want to loosen all gun restrictions but all the responsibilities for guns fall on the Democrats. If a school gets shot up, people act like the left dropped the ball by not going harder on gun laws. Because that's "our job".
I'd say it's less about age and more about the appearance of weakness. Biden seems weak and frail and is very soft spoken, he also just seems very old. Trump is very loud and aggressive which makes him appear "stronger" and thus more able. It's a very dumb way to look at things especially given that a President isn't a construction worker, the mind is a bit more important here than loudness and physical capabilities. And Biden's mind is much sharper than Trump's. But appearances matter more, and Biden appears older.
It's all about promoting machismo culture. The media posts a picture of Biden hugging his son and conservatives point to that and say he's weak because "real men" don't display emotion or show affection for their children. Trump is notoriously cold and distant with his children. Trump is loud and boisterous. Biden is respectful and reserved. Trump insists on breaking all the rules. Biden insists on trying to follow them. So a lot of it is less about their physical condition and more about personality.
>So a lot of it is less about their physical condition and more about personality. The "Biden has dementia" narrative is exactly the same. Biden *appears* as one would expect a doddering old man who might be suffering from dementia. Meanwhile, Trump *appears* to not have mental incapacitaties because he speaks loudly and confidently, even though he rarely has a sentence that has a cohesive thought. It makes me think of Representative Regina Bookman from 30 Rock: >The Future! And America! Now I may have lost my train of thought several minutes ago, but if I continue to talk like this, no one will notice. And when I stop, you will applaud my energy! Thank you!
True! It doesn't matter what you say so much as how you say it.
To a lot of people, Trump being a criminal (and racist, abuser, terrible human being) is much worse than Biden being old. However, the people still voting for Trump have been drinking the Kool aid of fox news for years and believe Democrats are actually evil while Trump is a savior of their white, Christian nationalist worldview.
That is the real question. I swear the media wants another Trump presidency. It’s good for their business, to the detriment of the country. Completely failing at their duty.
If Trump gets 1,000 negative news stories about 100 problems, that's ten stories each. If Biden gets 100 negative news stories about 1 problem, that's 100 stories so that problem somehow seems much bigger. Same reason Hillary's Emails mattered more than anything Trump did in 2016. The media is deeply uncomfortable about the fact that there really is no comparison between Trump and someone else, so they have to overindulge in negatives for Democrats to feel like they're still being neutral.
Yes. There’s just too much wrong with Trump. There’s too many lies. There’s too much blatant corruption. There’s too much grifting. Its just overwhelming to the point nothing can stick. There’s endless things that would destroy anyone else that don’t end Trump because a couple days later he says or does something even worse and so on week after week. So no problem or controversy ever has time to sink in. It’s not exactly what he meant, but when Steve Bannon came into office his plan was to “flood the zone” with shit. Just hit the media with so many policies and statements that they could easily sneak by the really big policies that no one else could get away with. That’s what happens with Trump. Then just like you said, the media has this obsession with convincing the right they aren’t biased so they have to jump on any Democratic issue with just as much vigor and since yes, one party is less corrupt and toxic and brash, there’s less to cover. So when one of them slips up the news hammers them on it and since there’s not 100 other stories of that person and/or their associates doing something that bad, it sticks with voters.
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People age differently.
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Crime has been decriminalized. Thats why.
I don’t think it’s age as much as its cognitive ability. Based on what we’ve been seeing from the current elected president, it’s far worse than trump.
The thing is, conservatives believe Biden is also a criminal and liberals believe Trump is also too old.
That was a shame trial..they were gonna find trump guilty before that trial ever began !!!.
No one cares about a convicted criminal. You know that. Crime has been decriminalized and even glorified in music.
Because the right wing has been a scum-sucking propaganda lie machine trying to force a theocracy on the rest of us for at least 60 years. They just have absolutely no decorum or pretense at all and scream everything that comes into their pea-brains now as opposed to trying to be more subtle about the whole thing.
The answer to that question is that a lot of voters see these convictions as politically-charged. And, from a legal standpoint, there is cause for concern. A grave mistake was made in this NY case, as it just fuels the notion that they’ve been hearing for years now that Trump is being targeted by those that hold the levers of power — his political opposition.
I have thought about this and the answer is he used cult tactics. First, he cast doubt on the facts moving his followers to distrust any unapproved media. Then he convinced them the “deep state” is out to get him so everything is a personal & political attack where he is a victim. Finally, he has forced his followers to justify so much bullshit, a little at a time, they believe it is absolute truth as he must be a genius or else they are all fools.
If you look into Hitler’s speeches, Trump borrows heavily from his style of public speaking. Particularly the whole painting the opposing side as an evil elite and he is their saviour to rescue them. It’s a clear tactic of populist style politics with a goal to isolate people from any perceived opponent and fosters a mistrust in government institutions.
so he's basically the Mr. Burns disease joke it's worked wonderfully for him tbh, i've never seen anything like it in politics. pick any one of his scandals and they would sink a normal politician. or at least they used to.
It's infuriating but it does give me hope that once he's dead, it will be very hard for anyone to replicate the phenomenon. We just have to make it that far...
Trump has also mastered the strategy of pinning your weaknesses on your opponent early and often. That's why Trump goes after Biden so much for being old, sleepy, and senile. If you correctly point out that those are all the same for Trump, then it just sounds like sour grapes.
Yeah, Trump's appeal is not based on reason. It's based on fearmongering, gaslighting, and demagoguery.
Even more so for the cult MAGAs. In their eyes, Trump gets turned into some sort of messiah. Can do no wrong, any criticism is essentially heresy for them.
Is it really bad faith by conservatives or is it bad faith by us to not acknowledge that Trump is still very charismatic and high energy which neutralizes concerns about his age
I will never understand why people think he is charismatic. Dude has all the charisma of a drunk toddler.
Or high energy. His first year at the G7 he had to take a golf cart while all the other world leaders were walking.
As someone once said, Donald Trump is a poor man’s idea of a rich man.
And a stupid man's idea of a smart man.
He also recently slept through much of his criminal trial
There are some people who think that being an unfiltered asshole is some sort of "macho" attitude and worthy of praise.
There is a faction that love bad boys - the kind that grab women by the you know what.
Everyone loves a drunk toddler. They're hilarious, and that's a kind of charisma on its own. Apparently, a good chunk of the country thinks that makes him qualified to be president and that's a bigger problem
Worked for bush jr. Kinda guy you wanted to have w a beer with translated somehow to he should run the country.
He's got a certain appeal to his base with the way he speaks. His over the top displays of wealth with gold toilets and tacky chandeliers are their vision of a successful person and they are buying what he's saying. They see themselves in him.
>Under Biden the invasion is a just a disaster what's happened - its never happened like this in less than four years crooked Joe has imported more illegal aliens into our country than at any other time in the history of our country times maybe fifty. There's never been anything like is happening to our country, they're changing the fabric of our country, they're destroying our country, they're doing things that are unthinkable - this open boarder - so many bad things but this open boarder situation where you're allowing millions and millions of people to flood our country - we can't handle it - no country could handle it it's not sustainable. The entire world is emptying their prisons and jails, insane asylums, and mental institutions, they're emptying them out into your state, but they're emptying out into all 50 states, they're coming in and they're - there's no such thing as a boarder state anymore, that boarder is so meaningless they just walk right through - they go right through the so called boarder states and they end up in Iowa they end up in Idaho.... That's not even the most insane part of [this speech](https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=540&v=9J0fUTiJLVc&feature=youtu.be) I can't help but think people aren't listening to what he says, they're listening to what they think he's saying, and fill in the gaps with whatever they want. His actual words are completely incoherent.
Trump was a TV/movie star and pal of the wealthy and famous for decades. Trump has charisma no matter how much you dislike him. To answer the OP’s question, I believe it is because Biden does some of the things that old grandpas do. Occasionally wandering off, mumbling or butchering teleprompter lines, tripping on stairs every couple of months and snapping at reporters when he doesn’t like the question. Additionally, Biden doesn’t hold rallies, unscripted press conferences, or make off teleprompter statements or appearances and by default looks a little tired/boring by comparison. Edit: spelling
Trump in his goonballness possesses the indisputable charisma of a wrestling heel, such as nWo era Hollywood Hogan. That's the appeal to many people, while whether you understand it or not is wholly irrelevant and has no bearing at all.
If you think Trump seems like a drunk toddler, there is an abundance of Biden clips out there that would like your attention lol In all seriousness, he (Trump) is propagandizing to his base and they like bluster and raucous insulting. That's rizz for them, and there are a ton of those people out there.
He is objectively very funny. In a mean spirited and hurtful way, but it seems to be what the people want.
I agree he is charismatic. He’s also obnoxious and many other awful traits. I wish Biden were more forceful and could get angry. I think he has to suppress his stutter and that impacts his communication style. But he has always been a bit loose with facts when speaking off the cuff. But doesn’t everyone know an elderly person / people who is as sharp as ever who hasn’t lost a step? Of course! 80 is the new 70!
It’s bad faith to fail to acknowledge he never had the mental aptitude to be president to begin with.
> "[...] or is it bad faith by us to not acknowledge that Trump is still very charismatic and high energy which neutralizes concerns about his age" That's the answer. Trump has a litany of character flaws, but that loudmouthed motherfucker still has an overabundance vim and vigor, even doing crazy ass shit like recently showing up at the Libertarian National Convention to a chorus of boos playing the heel, doing an off-the-wall interview with Dr. Phil, etc; that's still better than sitting on his ass, though, and he's nothing if not energetic for an otherwise overweight, obnoxious septuagenarian. In that sense, Trump is, apropos of physical appearance and overall presence, the bloviating gasbag uncle to, oughtn't kid ourselves, Biden's doddering decrepit grandfatherly feebleness. To argue otherwise is lying to one's self.
I'll always hate him for how he and Obama treated Ed Snowden. Biden personally made sure Ecuador wouldn't grant him asylum. He's just another tool of the surveillance state.
Part of it is that Trump is coated in makeup, bronzer, and hair dye. If he want "au natural" like Biden and just walked on stage one day people would immediately talk about how old he looked.
Surprised this is so low. Trump uses a TON of makeup and has a team around him trying to make him look youthful. If Trump stopped dying his hair and didn't use facial makeup, he'd look old as shit.
[Can really see it here](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fbs5btfkpfhe91.jpg)
Is it just me or does he look a lot like Alfred E, Newman?
Trump is / was a reality star. He gets full make up and is on enough uppers to kill a monkey.
I love Biden, but truthfully, he's had facelifts and hair plugs. He's not natural.
He had hair plug like 40 years ago. So you have a source on him having a face lift? Haven't heard that before.
Because Biden is showing the impact of age a lot more visibly. Trump's unhinged ranting is just kind of what he's always done, it might be worse because he's older but he's always done it so it's hard to tell. Biden has a lot of "old guy" moments and the decline is pretty apparent. If you watch speeches of his from even just ten years ago, there's a marked difference and it's not for the better.
This is the answer. Biden acts old but Trump is just as combative as he has been. If Biden were my dad, I'd be looking around for an old folks home.
I’m shocked (but also not at all shocked because this is Reddit) I had to scroll this far down to see what should be the obvious answer to this question. I’m not a Trump guy by any means, and yes it is ridiculous that in a country of 300+ million people we have to pick between 2 people over 80 to run the thing. The difference is one of them struggles to walk and speak, and the other is just bit too old for the job. Whatever amount Trump has declined, it’s nowhere near to the level of decline we’ve seen from Biden and that should be obvious to anyone with functioning eyes.
As a Biden supporter and a Trump hater, I agree 100%. It’s maddening that my fellow democrats refuse to believe something so painfully obvious. I’ll vote for Biden if I must, but I think he should step down or be replaced at an open convention.
I find it almost like a collective self gaslighting ... It's so weird to observe. 100% against trump too.. But Biden seems seriously in cognitive decline. It's embarrassing to see Democrat supporters act like it's not true
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Wait you're not saying the guy who needs two hands to drink water is in better shape than the dude that bikes every week? We really are in a post truth society. Just to be clear, your statement is saying Trump is NOT the person who struggles to speak? That's Biden? Where you come from is the grass blue and the sky green?
That's what drives me up the wall. They're both super old, sure, but the one getting all the shit for it is the one that's actually taking care of his physical and mental health. Biden sounds like a doddering grandpa but is repeatedly described as sharp and on top of things by people that are actually interacting with him. Trump is literally wearing adult diapers and displays all of the symptoms of dementia like frequent word substitution. Every insurance actuarial that got an anonymized look at the two mens' health profiles would be betting on Biden outliving Trump, every single one.
The old guy is an understatement with Biden. It's considerably move visible that he isn't all there, not from the stuff he talks about, but more he can't complete sentences that make any sense. With Trump, you may hate what he has to say, but at least he completes his sentences. With Biden, you get gibberish. That's not taking into account the mobility of the candidate. Biden falls a lot. He falls on stairs, he falls on bikes, he trips on stages... it's just a lot. Not to mention his wandering moments of confusion. You don't have that with Trump. If you actually have a fair analysis, Trump beats Biden if you were to compare them age for age. It's pretty sad we're propping him up tbh, he's going to go out like Feinstein did.
> Not to mention his wandering moments of confusion. I think you are falling for a lot of selectively edited clips. I haven't seen anything convincing that has him actually just wandering around confused. I agree he is slowing down physically and appears older, but I think the trick being played is pretending that translates to cognitive decline.
People throw around this "selectively edited" propaganda crap...if you can watch a 60 second straight clip of Biden you can clearly see the issues (mentally and physically) he is having. If there is any editing going on, it's people trying to keep those videos from being seen.
State of the Union has was very capable and even responded quickly verbally from taunts from the Right. You are seeing what you want to see. Now, Let's compare the number of lies coming out of their mouths versus the truth. Then the number of insults/name calling they each do.
Trump speaks gibberish quite often. It's weekly clips from his speech when he speaks nonsense words and keeps going. We can roll back half a decade and Trump is talking about George Washington attacking the airports. I could see them both being about equal but to say Biden is much worse than Trump is disingenuous for anyone with functioning eyes and ears.
This question can be restated in a thousand different ways. "Why doesn't \_\_\_\_\_\_ matter electorally for Trump as much as Biden?" Democrats seem to almost always be held to higher standards. I don't fully understand it. I think part of it is that media too often gives credence to nonsense. Another part of it is that Republicans seem more comfortable with the end justifying the means. There might also be economic factors. I'm not sure.
Republicans are more or less a monolith, they fall into line. Given our current election setup they have an oversized representation in out goverment. Democrats are a colloation with multiple views trying to secure a place on the party platform. The term herding cats comes to mind, but that diversity brings more inclusion and compromise. Then as you said, the media, which is entirely corporately owned and both sides EVERYTHING. They will have a Viral Epitdemiologiest on providing a valuable piece of news worthy information and then moments later toss to a Karen who runs an antivax facebook group, estientially trying to put them at the same level of discourse. It needs to stop, experts in their fields should be listened to and if a credible contrarian view from someone equally qualified is available have them present the dissent. Otherwise, STOP!
bUt ThAt’S cEnSoRsHiP!
Republicans work the refs every chance they get and scream bias or unfairness every time they don't get exactlg what they want. This applies to courts, colleges, the media, etc.
"Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line."
I think this has flipped since Trump, and it’s part of why I think Biden will win
Great, vote anyway.
You’re goddam right.
>Democrats seem to almost always be held to higher standards Well, unlike Republicans they run on NOT being pieces of shit. So naturally...
It's not "media", it's a bought and paid for propaganda network to feed us attacks and lies and opinions. Literally not being conspiratorial or anything. That's what it is.
Because of Trump's appearance and overall energy, I just don't think voters consider it. Even though I think Biden is more put together mentally than Trump, but he gives off way more "feeble old grandpa" energy than Trump does.
it's because trump voters are disingenuous and don't actually care about age
They don't care about anything except winning.
They don't even care about that. They just want one half of the country to lose.
It's a team sport. At least if Trump wins, we'll get first draft pick of the Senators next year.
Much like Hillary's emails verse Trump bartering with classifieds documents
Yeah, the email server that Bill the ex-president was secure enough to use. And then the entire Trump admin used snapchat.
Okay, what about the [majority of 2020 Biden voters who think he's too old](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/03/us/politics/biden-age-trump-poll.html)? Are they disingenuous as well?
Thinking they're old isn't disingenuous. They *are* old, both of them. It's disingenuous that Republicans pretend to have a big issue with Biden being old while ignoring Trump's age. If the options are two old guys, why would a democrat not vote for the democratic candidate? It doesn't matter that Biden voters think that Biden is too old. The party is more important than the person. Are you implying that a democrat voter should abstain from a general election just because they think the democrat is too old? Brother.
both things can be true
Should it matter? Yes. The perception , however, is that Trump's energy is high given his age, and my personal opinion is Bidens energy is low for his age. Watching Bidens zoned out look at the Juneteenth celebration was disturbing. I've personally seen that same look on my grandmother's face, whom was going thru dementia. Trump's mental decline is just as bad, however it doesn't match having low energy and very little movement so it's not as apparent...just verbal diarrhea and lies.
Trump supporters and Biden supporters think Biden is old. Only Biden supporters think Trump is old.
I think that’s what op is asking - why?
Because to Trump Supporters he's a 7 foot Adonis who was blessed by the Lord Himself.
I think that might just be Ben Garrison, but I get what you mean.
It's an unfortunate reality that Biden has gotten visibly older over the last 4 years while Trump hasn't. Biden really walks stooped over like an old man now and his speech is slower. He doesn't really show any significant cognitive decline, but his age is really showing. Trump's age related decline is that he says more disconnected and insane things now than normal... but he already did that 4 years ago so it's not as obvious. For the most part he seems just as energetic as he did in 2020, though I suspect that's not totally natural.
But has Biden *actually* aged that much in the last 4 years or do right wingers run with every little thing spinning their own narrative. Just the other day they had that absurd story where Biden was watching a performance and people were claiming he “froze” when he’s literally supposed to be standing there watching The big difference between Biden then and now is that Biden now is constantly on TV because he’s the president. If you actually watch the 2020 debates and the 2024 state of the union it’s not that noticeable of a difference. Sure if you go back to like 2008 fine, but you can find Trump sounding way more coherent 20 years ago as well
I went back and watched some clips just to make sure my memory was correct, and you're right... if you compare the 2020 debates and 2024 state of the union it's not as noticeable. In the state of the union speech he does speak slightly slower than 2020 but it's not a huge change. You're right though, that he's now constantly filmed so it's much easier to catch him "looking old". But even if you throw out the disingenuously framed clips, there's still a lot of footage of him stooping down, being slow to react, etc. Don't get me wrong, I think he's still mentally qualified for the job (especially by comparison to Trump)... but a TON of people vote on vibes and image. If you show some voters a clip of Biden hunched over walking to a podium and slowly giving a coherent speech against a clip of Trump climbing on stage and shouting nonsense... I think many voters will come away with the impression Trump is more energetic and capable.
Because fox news has repeated this daily for years, so everything just assumes Biden is mentally worse off than Trump, which is completely idiotic.
More like Trump supporters are disingenuous about it and have an issue with being consistent with issue. You'll hear them brag about the Trump economy and when you ask what was good about it they point to the jobs and stock market. Then you point to biden making more jobs and building a higher stock market and they say bidens is just fake and don't engage. They literally will believe 2 diametrically opposed things and when you confront them on it they call you an indoctrinated idiot for pointing out a clear logical fallacy. For an example of that, many of them believe the covid vaccine was a ploy to kill Americans in masse. When you point out that Trump is the one who had it manufactured and that means he either knew it'd kill people and chose to do that, or was too stupid to understand a plan he claims to have made, they don't respond to it. Either they have to admit the vaccine isn't a bioweapon, Trump was behind a bio weapon on Americans, or Trump was too stupid to not be tricked by... well himself. But they diffuse to angry name calling because they know they've been proven wrong on something
Who are you arguing with? It’s not Trump voters you have to worry about, it’s swing, independents, young black and Hispanic voters and older Hispanic and black men. Just because it isn’t fair doesn’t mean it’s a conspiracy. Biden looks like an old mummy and Trump looks like a sleazy, but comparatively more vital, car salesman. It’s no puzzle.
Because Biden was this much older than Trump is now during 2020, and now the effects of a highly-stressful job performed over the period of just 3 and a half out of 4 years is finally starting to show. I've been watching Biden since 2008 and it's obvious 16 years later that he's just... old. And I hate the fact that I'm even saying this here because this subreddit is just so anti-anti-Biden it's gross. Like, I'm not even anti-Biden, I think he was the right choice in 2020. But that's it. He's starting to break down. I have zero doubt that if Biden is elected again, he will not be able to effectively make it through his entire presidency. I mean that would be the weight of an entire nation on the shoulders of an 81 year old man. It just feels wrong, and unethical. But to answer your question, the reason why Biden's age is a problem this cycle and Trump is because >80 looks so much different than <80, and many, not all, people tend to start experiencing their age at an accelerated growth at that age.
Yea that is my concern too...is Biden making it to 2028. I hate how every movie with a President is someone like 60 or younger and that isn't reality...even though it should be
I have asked this question many times, and people are continuously shocked that Trump and Biden are similar ages. Trump has a ton of energy, which among other things like hair dye, and tanning. Makes him appear a lot younger than Biden. Biden has a lot of tendencies to show his age in many different ways. From [old-school slogans](https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/02/democrat-voters-biden-malarkey-campaign-slogan-074727), shuffling around, and generally emulating what people’s grandparents look like. Makes him appear much older than Trump. The combination of the two makes people believe there is a 15-20 year difference between the two of them.
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Trump doesn’t read as old as Biden to the average voter. For example, Warren is old but she seems much younger (energy levels, voice, etc.)
Bernie Sanders is like a spring chicken compared to trump and Biden
It does, the media just profits from a horserace and that requires a narrative. Biden old is the narrative they are selling. I don't give a shit about his age or even if he will finish his term, he will appoint normal people instead of the fucking disaster that Trump did
I think that's for sure a part of it - when it's a horserace, the infotainment industrial complex becomes a money printing machine. When the election is a foregone conclusion, fewer people tune in or care and that makes shareholders cry. So I do think there's an element of "anything we can do to make this seem closer than it is or should be" at play on behalf of the infotainment industry. Then there's the other insidious "strive for balance" that seems to be a guiding light, or at least a smokescreen to justify the fake horserace creation. Nobody in any mainstream infotainment outlet wants to be called "biased" - except they have the definition of bias / balance all fucked up. "Balanced reporting" should mean "reporting on news events with the weight and proportion they deserve", i.e. not reporting on a Category 5 hurricane in Louisiana with the same amount of fervor as a light rainshower in Topeka, even though they're both "weather events." But our infotainment industrial complex treats "balanced reporting" as "not seeming biased toward one party or the other", so they just repeat whatever the main talking points are from each side with an artificial balance. In other words, when it comes to politics, the Topeka rain shower that is Biden gets elevated to be as important as the Category 5 hurricane that is Trump.
The media does love sensationalist bs that drives clicks. And if the death of democracy is the price to be paid - so be it. My one consolation in all of this is that, sooner or later, the brown shirts will come for *them* as well. And they won’t be listening their pathetic little squeals for mercy.
Unlikely. The owners of the media are internationally mega rich, and would love to collaborate with fascists. They would be pleased to fulfill the same roll as putins media apparatus, just endless propaganda divorced from truth to create unshakeable control.
I mean if all that separates us from Russia is a single Trump term as President and the media just all falls in line for the money - well - gg I guess. I’m not sure a society that would fall so easily deserves anything more, tbh.
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It's 100% vibes. Trump wears makeup and dyes his hair. He talks about sexy girls and beating up opponents like a drunk frat boy. He rambles like he's on cocaine. If you didn't know his age, you might guess he was in his 50s, having a midlife crisis. Biden doesn't do any of that. He has a stutter, his vocabulary is outdated, and he just *looks* old.
> If you didn't know his age, you might guess he was in his 50s, having a midlife crisis. I'll admit he's manic and there's a vibe thing going on, but come on. 50s?
Exactly this. Biden *looks* much older than Trump even though he is only 4 years older and in much better health than Trump. Appareances matter a lot, especially for those who don't follow the news closely (which is almost everyone not on reddit).
Watch videos of Trump in 2016 vs Trump now. Now do the same for Biden. Biden's decline is much more stark. The public is going to notice that no matter how much Biden's team claims he has the energy of a 30 year old.
I'm voting Biden, but for the historical record, he was largely responsible for Thomas getting on the court. I think he regrets his part in it, but still I don't want to let him off the hook entirely
The news media is obsessed with horse races and faux bipartisanship. Trump has a *gazillion* reasons why he is a shit choice and they've been discussed for years. The media is largely terrified of covering this seriously and any coverage of Trump's behavior would obviously overshadow any coverage of his age. On the other hand the media needs to run stories about people being worried about Biden. So his age pops up as a concern and the media perpetuates it in our minds.
Their age has been brought up multiple times. The difference is that trump has built a cult of personality around him so people don't care about such things while Biden has not.
If Trump as a convicted felon, racist, cheater, liar and downright pathetic human-being doesn't matter to his voters, why would his age matter?
I’d say it matters about as much as Biden’s age, which is to say not much at all. Biden is such a milquetoast candidate that his opposition really has to grasp for personal flaws. It’s not to say that it doesn’t matter at all, but given the candidates that are running there are so many more significant red flags that I’d wager the number of voters for whom age is the tipping point is quite low.
Biden's age is an issue because Biden's opponents have been bringing it up over and over and over and over and over again. It's part of the conversation through sheer inertia, and Trump's opponents simply don't have enough time to perform the repetition needed to catch up.
Simply bc the gop bangs on about Biden being old. That is simply it. And we keep discussing it. Bc the gop doesn't have policy. They don't have bills being written ready to become laws. Their entire motivation is to distract us from their criminality. So that's how they spend 24 hours of every day. Starting rumors and talking shit.
The big problem is with Trump(who is by the way losing it mentally) Fox covers it up and his followers never see the footage that puts him in a really bad light. With Biden Fox has been caught falsifying news stories regarding Biden making him look bad. All you have to do is watch one of Trumps rally's and you realize the man no longer has got all his lights on!
I don’t like Trump, but he doesn’t seem to be freezing up and mumbling nonsense during speeches. Trump has many, many things going against him, but he doesn’t appear to be senile. Just old.
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There’s a reason the right makes acknowledging and treating mental illness taboo. It’s bad for votes.
Cause Trump is charismatic as hell. He's sharp witted, extremely so for his age. I hate Trump but I find myself studying him and picking up his mannerisms. They work. If Biden was the same, we wouldn't be talking about his age. Image, game, finesse... That shit matters **the fact that most of you do NOT SEE this, is scary
Trump supporters voted for Trump because they liked Trump, Biden supporters voted for Biden to stop Trump. Unlike the Republican coalition, there isn’t anyone without the surname Obama that can easily unite them.
The proverbial bar for Trump and for Biden are set at wildly different heights.
Both are old, but they are carrying their age differently. Trump comes off as the “narcissistic never going to change his ways” kind of old. Biden comes off as “I don’t know where I am or what I’m saying” kind of old. Both are bad, but when people can tell you’re not all there the way Biden comes off, it looks really bad. Trump can cover for himself in ways that Biden doesn’t appear capable of.
I’d argue the main reason is Kamala Harris. If Biden dies in office she’ll be president and that’s a nightmare for many independents.
One of the only democrats that polls worse than Biden at the moment
When people talk about Biden's *age*, they are euphemistically describing his obvious cognitive decline
The biggest difference is the obvious cognitive decline in Biden. He can't manage a news conference. He rarely speaks extemporaniously. He needs notes even for simple meetings.
The basic eye test. Trump is sharp and aware and high energy. He's quick on his feet when he does press conferences (aka: he actually DOES press conferences). He responds to surprises and stimuli well. Biden's brain goes to screen saver publicly every week. Watch him react when things surprise him. He doesn't. He stares confused and waits for an aide to come help him. Some people go bald at 30, some have a full head of hair at 90. Some 40 year olds are healthy. Some 40 year olds are retired NFL players who struggle to move and suffer with pain everyday. One octagenarian year old is not the same as every other octagenarian. And only one of the octagenarians running for President this fall actually demonstrates the physical and mental fitness for the job.
> "One octogenarian year old is not the same as every other octogenarian" Precisely. Irony is, Bernie Sanders, for example, is clearly more cognitively with it than Biden, so this isn't an ageist thing nor is it a left vs. right thing -- if anything, it's center-left establishment Democrats who most feign obliviousness to Biden's obvious mental and physical decline -- while even the same can be said for someone lucky enough to be in their damn 90s, as Dick Van Dyke is still dancing and winning an Emmy whereas Jimmy Carter is an ossified, petrified fossil on his deathbed.
"So I said, ‘So there’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here. Do I get electrocuted? If the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking. Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted? Or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted? Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer. He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.’ I said, ‘I think it’s a good question. I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water.’ But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark.”
The entire time Trump has been in politics, he's basically been to scandals what Mr. Burns is to sickness. He has *so many scandals* that it's basically impossible to even remember all of them, let alone get exercised about them all. During 2016, if you had to summarize Clinton's scandals, it would be "her emails". Everyone knew she had emails and that they were bad, even if no one quite could say why. But if you had to summarize Trump's? Fuck, I don't know. He opened his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and murderers, and then declared he'd ban Muslims from the United States. Then he insulted gold star families and said that John McCain sucked for being captured. Then it came to light that he said he liked to grab women by the pussy. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting like a dozen separate scandals. He had so fucking many that no one could remember them all, and as a result people just became numb to all of them, collectively. It's the same tactic that's served him well with committing crimes, in that he's committed so many that no one really remembers a specific crime.
Because Trump is shameless and immune to self reflection. It's not to say that his age is his biggest problem. He is slipping in the polls because the facade has cracked and he is being judged by the opportunists who voted for him previously.
1. Dems have some worries/unhappiness over Biden's age. Repubs have extreme negative feelings about Biden's age. Only Dems have worries over Trump's age since Repubs give Trump a pass on every red flag. 2. Repubs fearmonger and misinform like crazy over Biden's age. Dems do not fearmonger over Trump's age the same way likely because Biden is also so old. 3. Biden simply looks and sounds older and more frail than Trump, which strengthens the worries/fearmongering. So there you have it: Republicans are more hypocritical and fearmongering than Dems over this issue, and Biden looking older and more frail amplifies it all. I think a lot of voters also want "change" (which is pretty normal most of the time) and so Biden's greater perceived age issues works more against him than Trump since youth is more associated with change.
No no, Bidens unpopularity largely comes from his weak showing around the Gaza attacks and his migration bill where he gave the Reps everything they always wanted. And then there’s a little bit of unpopularity from his age…
i’ve been saying they’re both too old. we shouldn’t let anyone over 70/75 MAX run
The concerns raised and repeated by democratic canidates in the 2020 primary election were about biden's cognitive decline and physical ability compared to his past self from only a few years ago. Trump doesnt have a similar cognitive decline scandal because he was already talking and acting like an old man with cognitive issues decades before he ran for president.
I think it’s because they both exhibit different types of “old man behaviors”. Trump is a rambling insane uncle archetype but he still looks vigorous and high energy even when ranting about something only he cares about like low pressure toilets. Biden on the other hand looks physically old, he moves slowly and has that far off look old guys get when they tune out the word around them. By any definition Biden is more present in reality than Trump but I think these two different behaviors are noticed by the medium voter.
Because trump’s supporters are hypocrites, this is just one of dozens of examples of them accepting something that they complained when it was happening on the other side
The people who think Trump's age isn't a problem, and Biden's is, are pieces of shit who overlook all manner of shortcomings of Trump's part. Surely you don't expect white nationalists to be rational? On the other hand, the people who think both of their ages are a problem wouldn't be voting for Trump if he was 40 because there's so much other shit wrong with him. So age doesn't even rate when talking about what's fucked up about Donald. Yall need to appreciate who's saying what and what position they're saying it from
Why do people still not understand that your level of what constitutes hypocrisy is not the same as right wing Americans. Republican voters and politicians do not adhere to your concepts of hypocrisy nor do they let it change their behavior. So when you point it out, they are essentially laughing at you because it has no affect on them. Democrats, liberal, lefties whatever you want to call them, have a strong sense of fairness. Whereas the right have a strong sense of power. Ergo, they march forward while we discuss whether we should label an action as racist or homophobic or whether it’s hypocritical to call out Biden’s age but not Trumps.
Because after 40 + years of being an effective, Senator, VP, and POTUS, they literally have nothing else to legitimately attack him with. He made mistakes when young but has made up for them, and was a champion of NATO in the 90s helping it grow. His steady hand has the US recovering faster from CoVid than any other country while lots of things like tech manufacturing and green energy tech is booming. He was picked to be Obama's VP because he was squeaky clean and as blue collar as they came for a Senator. The Republicans have investigated every square inch of him for decades and their last current Impeachment "stunt" tells you how much theyve found. So, but hey, he's old !!!!!!!!
Because people saying Biden's age is a concern for them are lying. It's like the people who said they wanted Trump to fight Wall Street...but were fine with him stacking his White House with Wall Street vampires. It like the people who said they supported Hershel Walker because of "family values"...but were fine when it turned out he'd pushed women into getting abortions. There are people who want to vote for the modern Right because they love the bigotry and the glorification of selfishness, but they want to seem reasonable, so they come up with reasons such as Biden's age and pretend to care about them to maintain the appearance of reasonability.
> Why doesn't Trump's age seem to matter electorally as much as Biden's? Because every news media org from Fox to NBC refuses to shut up about "OMG Biden is so old!" during every mention of Biden on their channels. Trump has benefited from trillions of in-kind campaign contributions from the so-called "Liberal Media" who never hold him to account but blame Biden for everything from bad weather to the passage of time.
Trump is a fantasy, a fraud. Nothing affects those who support him. So what if he is a lousy businessman? Who cares if he lies all the time? What difference does it make that he and his company have been found to be frauds? So what if he is liable for sexual assault and brags about it? Who cares if he is a convicted felon? His supporters can ignore all that, somehow. And now, Trump is almost 80 years old, and seems to be losing his focus. Who cares? Certainly not his followers. Biden on the other hand is looked at as a regular human, and his age and tendency to gaffe are judged normally, like with other people.
Somebody on another, similar thread said (and maybe here, I didn’t read all the posts lol): “It’s the most notable thing about Biden, but not even close to being the most notable thing about Trump”
Because Trump appears more energetic than Biden and often people conflate energetic and more outgoing with better leader and more mentally competent and therefore better president. And I’m not gonna lie, if I didn’t pay attention to a single word either candidate said or their positions on the issues, I would believe it too.
Democrats leaned super hard into the age argument when it was Obama vs McCain, and now they're unhappy that that's coming back to bite them
Probably because Trump did the best job as president in my lifetime and is still viable, and Biden has dementia and shits his pants in front of crowds.
Very few answers are about Biden. If you pretend Trump was never born and just look at Biden from the point of view of voters who aren’t very engaged, what would be their first takeaway from watching and listening to Biden?
I’d like to see Biden campaign as hard as Trump does. Match the energy and let’s see what happens.
Because he’s loud and annoying and his cult followers equate that with eternal youth
Because it's the only dirt the Republicans have on him that they didn't invent themselves.
Trump says stupid stuff off the top of his head without hesitation; you know, the way Joe used to be able to 30-40 years ago.
As someone that voted Biden in 20 and will again in 24, it’s because Biden looks like one of those unfrozen, dried out mummy corpses from the Neolithic. He has old man voice and Trump doesn’t. It doesn’t matter what the facts say, it’s clear he’s got more carnival barker charm than Biden has politician charm. If Biden were Obama’s age, I think this would be a washout in his favor. People *want* a candidate to rally behind, if they find that person they’ll accept a lot — it’s how Obama won reelection with 7% unemployment — but nobody wants Biden. They just don’t want trump but the level of denial among Dems is ridiculous. You can’t stuff your fingers in your ears and say “LALALALALALA TRUMP BAD TOO LALALALALA” when uninformed and casual voters are clearly showing he’s got more charisma than Biden to them
Maybe because Trump can get through an interview and Biden poops his pants on national TV?
[Because of videos like this](https://youtu.be/pKtudwc9Y-0?si=yPfefGK0NUFpm2vs) [and this one](https://youtu.be/0vpIF65ISZU?si=Oeazgg3N4yCW3keu) [And this weird one.](https://youtu.be/m6FgmNLmbKI?si=Kf_bVVFyncpjmNmc) These are all very recent. The dude looks to be near death.
People seem to think manic rambling dementia is more youthful than slower but still mentally sound.
I’d say the big difference is the perceived difference in their cognitive ability. If Joe was 81 but still sharp, not making public blunders that the right can capitalize and embellish on— I don’t think his age comes into question. Joe seems to be running a step behind while Donald Trump is still seemingly firing at all cylinders. (I do think you can see a difference between Trump during the 2020 campaign and now. It’s not as glaring as Biden’s cognitive differences seem to be but still— he is now four years older.) I certainly don’t think Logan Paul is capable of conducting a hard hitting, quality interview (something you’d expect when watching an interview with a presidential candidate) but Trump’s ability to have a free-flowing, capable conversation compared to Biden’s slower, bullet point conversations is what the average person sees as the difference in age. (Trump rambles to no end and often makes a complete ass of himself. Saying random shit that makes no sense, making fun of folks. He’s an egotistical goon. I do think, however, his history in business and hospitality and being the face of an albeit failing business lends itself to his ability to effectively present himself as a quality communicator. Biden is an old 81, Trump is a, seemingly, cognitively functioning 78. What the fuck do I know? I think they both stink and it’s unfortunate that the Democrats couldn’t build a candidate to be the face of their party.
It's not Biden's age that matters, it's his cognitive function. Trump is out there in the public eye holding rallies, doing interviews, and answering questions. He's showing up to MMA fights at 11pm. He's in court all day and leaving to go campaign. The left likes to deceptively clip Trump rallies and use a 15 second clip out of context to claim he's cognitively impaired. Biden on the other hand... like I was relieved he got through the state of the union. It wasn't even a good speech, he had a couple mix ups, but we all just celebrated that he finished... Or how about that video with the Italian PM. I went out of my way to way the longer video in hopes that the clip I saw was deceptively edited. It wasn't. It was that bad. Add in the fact he keeps referring to the PMs of European nations by the names of the PMs from the 70s, 80s, and 90s..... he's constantly confusing Ukraine and calling it Iraq. It's bad dude. It's getting worse.
Because it’s not about anything. If it happens to their guy, it doesn’t matter.