Anne Kinzel, a supporter of the Iowa Women’s Democratic Political Caucus, wrote this prior to President Biden’s resignation. At that time I asked her to submit as a editorial column to the Des Moines Register, but she thought it was too long. It is worthy of sharing.

Even though it may be considered old news, please read and reflect on the third paragraph about the media.

Here are a few thoughts after listening to the part of the Biden news conference that National Public Radio thought was worthy of broadcasting after all the “pre-game” hype. 

I have no idea if President Joe Biden has the cognitive chops to serve another term. No one does. What I don’t understand is how the press treats Biden’s perceived deficiencies versus how they have treated Donald Trump’s deficiencies. It seems that Trump has benefited from a far lower level of scrutiny. 

What drives that difference that I perceive? Three things come to mind: 1) The media is biased to the right of the political spectrum; 2) At the end of the day, our media and our country have always given a pass to rich, white guys (who often inherit their money rather than earn it), which is the very essence of white male privilege. Trump is just another in a long line of incompetent and ignorant men who get a damn ‘pass’, and 3) the press, owned by corporations, big holding companies, and some billionaires believes it will get more clicks and profits from dumping on Biden than challenging Trump. It is much easier to point out that an old guy is, in fact, old than it is to take on, daily, a serial liar. 
So here I am. Biden is old, Trump is an ignorant buffoon and quite possibly a witting or unwitting agent of a hostile power, and the press appears biased, lazy, and more interested in profits than reporting the news.

But l am not ready to stop in this exercise in citizen analysis. Where has the Democratic establishment been since 2020? They presumably knew that President Biden would continue aging during his presidency. They knew he would be 86 at the end of a second term. Where have they been hiding? What the hell have they been doing? When was the work done to elevate a new generation of politicians to succeed Biden? 
The hard-core Christian nationalist right is a small minority in our country. Democratic leadership cannot run from that fact. We, the citizens of this country who believe in democracy, cannot let the Democratic Party continue to operate at this remarkable level of incompetence. 

The hard-core Christian nationalist right is a small minority in our country. Democratic leadership cannot run from that fact. We, the citizens of this country who believe in democracy, cannot let the Democratic Party continue to operate at this remarkable level of incompetence.

I will always vote Democratic as I believe the Republicans are wrong on the issues and have been consistently wrong throughout my lifetime. But I am tired of settling for such poor representation at the national and state party level. Please note that I am not speaking about individual politicians. There are so many good Democrats who represent us at significant cost to themselves and their families. They, like us, deserve more from party leadership.
 
One last note, I think George Clooney is a fantastic actor, but I don’t give a damn about his opinion on whether President Biden is qualified to be president for four more years. If our party leaders listen to him, it’s because he is part of the uber-rich “donor class” whose expertise is measured in dollars and not much else. Shame on them for prostituting themselves in this manner.