Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell struck up a friendship during their nearly quarter-century in the Senate together. Now in their 80s, the Democratic president and the Senate GOP leader appear to be giving political cover to each other as they fend off questions about their advanced age and health issues.

Notably, McConnell, R-Ky., 81, hasn’t joined Donald Trump, 77, and other Republicans who have attacked Biden’s age, health and mental acuity as he seeks re-election.

And after McConnell’s second freeze-up last week, Biden was one of the first to call McConnell, telling reporters that his “friend” sounded like “his old self” and that such episodes are a “part of his recovery” from a fall and a concussion this year.

  • @Sylver@lemmy.world
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    210 months ago

    Voters being dumb and electing incumbent yet incapable people is not just democracy, but populism. Especially when those in power have been in power for so long that they meddle in education funding to keep said voters dumb

    • @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      210 months ago

      Democracy and populism are mutually exclusive?

      Especially when those in power have been in power for so long that they meddle in education funding to keep said voters dumb

      Improving education is indeed the solution to the problem. And it’s a thing that is more likely to happen than a law prohibiting those currently in power from running again.

      • @Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        110 months ago

        IMO it’s useless talking about what laws or policies need to change to fix this because the people with the power to change it know that doing so will affect their ability to stay in power and just won’t change it to their detriment. It’s the same reason protesting won’t ever fix the fundamental issues. The people currently at the top aren’t just going to hand their power away or cripple their ability to easily generate or access wealth. If it comes to it, they’ll go to war before giving that up.

        • @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          110 months ago

          Then it follows that it’s also useless to even discuss such things on the internet. So why even bring up these topics if it’s impossible to change anything?

          Or are you just spending time posting on the internet in an attempt discourage others from trying to improve things?

          • @Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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            110 months ago

            Solving a problem requires understanding it. I’m not trying to discourage improvement but want more people to see what I see about the nature of what’s going on and how many of these flaws in the system aren’t seen that way by the people who pass the laws and make the policies.