Yes, Joe Biden Is Old. That's What Makes Him Effective

Let's do a thought experiment, shall we?

Allow me to present a few scenarios for our viewing audience.

Scenario #1. You move to a new area and are looking for a new primary care physician. The office closest to your house has two physicians who are currently accepting new patients. The first physician is a recent medical school graduate who is in his first month at the office. The second physician is a veteran of 35 years, who has been a staple at the office the entire time. Who would you choose?

Scenario #2. You have twins entering the third grade at the local elementary school. Your son is in Miss Johnston's class. Miss Johnston is a first-year teacher who graduated last year with an undergraduate degree in elementary education. Your daughter is in Mr. Brown's class. Mr. Brown has been teaching for 26 years, is board-certified, and has a Master of Education degree. When it comes to having an honest and open conversation about your child's education, which teacher would you feel more comfortable with? Scenario #3. You are having problems with your laptop computer that your daughter bought for your birthday. You have the sense that there might be a simple fix but aren't too tech-savvy when it comes to that sort of thing. You decide to bring the laptop to the local computer repair shop and see a younger employee on her phone at the service desk next to an elder gentleman who seems more attentive. Who would you approach with your question?

In each situation presented, there exists a choice that can only be made based on your own personal experiences. However, there is a strong likelihood that in each situation you will be drawn toward the individual who has more experience, with the knowledge that this experience would be of personal benefit to you. Having an experienced doctor often gives us peace of mind when it comes to understanding our health and our health options. Having an experienced teacher helps us understand the struggles of our own children and provides us ways in which those struggles can be overcome. Having an experienced individual in tech support helps us with a generational gap where we might not feel as embarrassed about our shortcomings as we would with a younger individual. In each situation, nobody would be faulted for prioritizing the experienced individual rather than the one much newer to the field.

So why is it that we punish, rather than reward, experience in politics?

The truth of the matter is that politics is like any other field. You get better at it the more you do it. Rookie legislators are ineffective for a number of reasons, chief among them is that they haven't learned the ropes of their new profession. Being involved in government is more than just voting on laws; it's about creating and nurturing relationships. It's proving that you're a team player by starting off on smaller committees and working your way up. It's showing that you're willing to fundraise not only for yourself but for the local/state/national party as well. It's picking one issue that matters to your constituents and working across the aisle and the legislative body to see if there's enough momentum to create a bill or receive an earmark to fund a program and knowing that this very well might not happen for a couple of years. It's about finding your niche and being a good foot soldier all while working behind the scenes to learn more and more about the grease that makes the wheels of government turn.

All of this takes time. But it also takes a certain temperament. Republican Jim Jordan has been a member of the United States House of Representatives for 16 years and hasn't passed a single bill out of committee. On the Democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders has been a member of Congress for over 30 years and has yet to author significant legislation that has been enacted into law. The truth is that those whose names we hear the most are often the least effective at doing their jobs. Meanwhile, Democrats like Senator Gary Peters from Michigan and Congressman Gerald Connolly from the 11th district in Virginia are actually the most effective legislators, according to the Center for Effective Lawmaking. That is to say that while there is certainly a learning curve needed to serve in the United States Congress, there also exists opportunities for those willing to forgo the weekly talk shows and put their heads down and work rather than yearning to be in the public eye. The most effective legislators often aren't known to most beyond the constituents in their very own districts.

Prior to becoming Vice-President, Joe Biden served as a United States Senator from the state of Delaware for six full terms from 1973 to 2009. Starting off as the body's youngest member, Biden had to work hard to prove he belonged. Being mentored by veteran senators like Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale, Biden quickly learned to put his head down and work rather than seek the limelight. He became effective at reaching across the aisle and ended his Senate career receiving a top-20% bipartisan score according to the Lugar Center's Bipartisan Index. As the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden became the public face of the fight against the nomination of Robert Bjork, an extreme candidate that then-President Ronald Reagan hoped to stealthily move onto the Supreme Court. In 1994, Biden helped elevate the clandestine world of domestic abuse by being an original sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act, which has since been reauthorized on three separate occasions. Time and time again, Joe Biden found ways to bring people together to get results.

So it should come as no surprise to us who are paying attention that it was Joe Biden's behind-the-scenes determination that helped secure the release of 50 hostages over the past three days. From The Times of Israel:

After nearly two weeks with little progress, Burns met in Doha with the Qatari premier and Barnea to discuss an initial outline for a deal, which still had some gaping holes as Hamas had yet to identify the hostages it was holding.

Unsatisfied with the pace of the talks, Biden called Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the first time since the outbreak of the war and “made very clear that where we were was not enough,” the administration official said.

During their “very intense call,” Biden told the emir that the sides would not be able to move forward without identifying information, and the Qatari leader “made it very clear that he was going to do everything he possibly could to get this done,” the administration official recalled.

Shortly after that call, Hamas produced identifying information on 50 women and children it said it could release in the first stage of a deal.

During a November 14 phone call between Biden and Netanyahu — one of 13 held since the war’s outbreak — “it was understood that we could move forward with this deal,” the administration official said, adding that Netanyahu offered his initial backing before Israel’s war cabinet voted in support of it the next day.

A little experience goes a long way.

Because an effective president cannot simply learn as he goes. He cannot wing it. He cannot shoot from the hip and hope for the best. We saw that with Donald Trump. We saw someone who not only didn't have government experience but didn't care that he didn't have government experience. He wanted to be the boss, to make all the decisions. He wanted his "experts" to agree with him and he belittled those who dared to stand up to him. He ignored long-standing traditions and practices. He had no understanding nor desire to understand the written and unwritten rules of diplomacy. He listened to the most malignant members of his Cabinet who wanted to do the most amount of harm to the most amount of people. Had it not been for organized opposition and favorable legal rulings that thwarted Donald Trump's worst impulses, then our country would have been a whole lot worse off as a result of the Trump presidency.

This is the choice America now faces. An experienced, veteran president or a Republican nominee with little to no governing experience or a second go-round of Donald Trump. We value competency and wisdom in every single other profession; it's time to do so in politics. It's time to ignore the media ageism and acknowledge that Joe Biden's half-century in government is an asset, not a liability. It's time to admit that Joe Biden is competent, composed, and compassionate. The last three years have shown us that he is more than up to the job. Age is but a number and I, for one, will proudly cast my vote for 81-year-old Joe Biden and I will work just as hard to get him elected as I did in 2020. With age comes wisdom, and Joe Biden has proven time and time again that history has put him here for us in this critical moment at exactly the right time.

Critics be damned.

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