AGE: A False Metric of Political Competence
Bob Deutsch
With Super-Tuesday and Special Counsel Hur’s interview and report on President Biden’s memory now on the record, it’s time to talk seriously about mental competence as a prerequisite for the highest office in the land.
Many people — particularly us Americans — like numerics to judge everything from Steph Curry’s percentage of successful three-point shots to so-called big data tabulations on consumer preferences to political polling predictions. Numerics — a number — is a false idol. It’s simple and seems precise, but it eliminates “lived meaning.”
So let’s talk about mental acuity and competence as it relates to judging those who run for president of the United States.
The Visual takes Precedence
If we believe the media, more people are concerned with President Biden’s age than Trump’s.
But is there a big difference accentuating between the ages of 81 and 77? The real difference between the two current contenders who seek occupancy in the Oval Office is gait — something that’s easily seen. Biden’s walk is stiff and somewhat tentative. The culprit: spinal arthritis; not a neurological disease. Yet, we see it, it’s easily observable.
Trump suffers no such deficit in his walking…BUT Trump himself is a visual animal, cognitively speaking. If immigration from America’s southern border is a problem, his solution: just build a wall — something that can be seen and is concrete.
On the face of it a wall might be a solution if it wasn’t for the fact that America is a land of immigrants seeking freedom from tyranny and economic crisis. One mental problem with the visually-dominant Trump as president is that the responsibilities and challenges of POTUS are almost entirely conceptual in nature. All decision-making as president requires a consideration of complex and a competing set of variables, not to mention attention to possible unintended consequences.
On a personal issue, Trump says he is innocent of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll because he wouldn’t be attracted to such a woman. To him, case closed.
(Note: outside of politics, examples of visual dominance occur in just about every pharma TV advertisement as people are seen smiling and frolicking as serious, associated side effects appear in text, below. Pharma knows viewers will remember what the saw, not what was read.)
Human Nature Prioritizes the Familiar
There is a human tendency for people to seek out and also attract people who are like them. Trump’s early mentors were his father and Roy Cohn, the notorious attorney. These two men taught Donald Trump early in his career that winning is everything, no matter how you did it. There is an aggressive tinge to Trump that’s colored with anger and resentment. And for many in his MAGA-followers this is their basis of attachment to Trump. Their predominant emotion is anger. It’s the one emotion through which they feel most alive.
Some psychiatrists have called Trump narcissistic or a sociopath. Perhaps a more appropriate word for Trump is hedonistic: seeking only to bolster his own self-esteem and interests. Trump treats people as pawns in a game that he alone establishes the rules for and so wins. And many of Trump supporters identify with his revenge style of dominance.
Trump was President of the United States in name only; he was always President of Trump, Inc. His only concern was himself, not the US Constitution, not the country, not America’s international standing and definitely not the American people.
Trump was lucky. Trump’s rhetoric and cognitive style struck a chord with many who feel they have been left behind by the American dream, and that they have been labeled “deplorables” by some of the coastal elites. Their commitment to Trump is their commitment to ending their label as “losers.”
(Note: Maybe it’s time for America to stop worshipping the billionaires, the so-called influencers and the Ivy Leaguers, and for the media to stop focusing almost exclusively on what it calls “icons.”)
It’s no wonder, too, that Trump feels a camaraderie with Putin — two angry, selfish men seeking unchecked power.
(Note: The reason a newborn wants to lay on his or her mother’s chest is because the mother’s heartbeat was the very first sound the child heard in the safest place that child knew.)
Who Should Be America’s 47th President?
If the choice next November 5, 2024 is between an aging — but decent — man with inflammation in his lower spine and a man who has chronic inflammation of his ego, the choice is not numeric, it is fundamental to the continuation of American democracy, to which so many Americans gave their lives to protect over the last 250 years.
