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There’s no escaping it now.
We are a deeply divided country in the midst of a presidential campaign in which the mental acuity of an 81-year-old sitting president will be one of the central issues through November, possibly eclipsing the economy, climate change, immigration and reproductive rights.
This is happening in the middle of an unprecedented demographic shift, just several years out from the first time in human history in which people 65 and older outnumber people 18 and under, with many millions of people suffering the harrowing experience of memory loss.
It’s a moment that can serve as an opportunity to invest in more research, educate the public on early detection and treatment and fortify resources for patients and their loved ones. Or it can be a time to exploit and politicize cognitive loss or even mock it, as GOP candidate Nikki Haley has done with her new “Grumpy Old Men” ad campaign.
Questions about President Biden’s mental and physical health — as well as that of civility-impaired former president and likely opponent Donald Trump, who is 77 — were already part of the political conversation, with critics of Biden proclaiming him unfit. But the issue became magnified after Thursday’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents, in which a special counsel called the president a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The Trump team pounced, with strategist Chris LaCivita telling the New York Times the special counsel report is “damning and defining.” Well, OK, but if mental fitness is the issue, let’s not forget that LaCivita’s guy lost the last presidential election decisively but still thinks he won.
Biden didn’t help his cause Thursday night when he proclaimed “my memory is fine,” only to then refer to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico. This followed two recent similar gaffes involving the leaders of France and Germany.
We could be in for months of this, exploring new frontiers in the post-sanity of American politics.
