FDR and Biden: Two "Old" Presidents That Saved America from Fascism

On Friday night, after finishing a beer-tasting at the Tap Room in Minocqua, I looked at my phone and saw a number of alerts from the two news organizations I follow religiously—The New York Times and the Atlantic. Both called for Biden to leave the presidential race after his weak debate performance the night before.
 
The editorial staff at the Times wrote this damning piece, and the bullpen from the Atlantic piled on: Tom Nichols, Franklin Foer, and Jerusalem Demsas, to name a few. Not only that, but I saw the progressive firebrand Cenk Uygur lambast Biden on social media yesterday and woke up this Sunday morning to read David Von Drehle’s article in the Washington Post calling for Biden to emulate LBJ and step aside to unify his party.
 
I’ve never seen anything like it. 

An inordinate number of some of the smartest and (usually) most ethical reporters in America just rejected a president who has a solid legislative history, is adeptly leading our allies to reject Russian and Chinese imperialism, and is enjoying a period of relative post-Covid economic stability.
 
These renowned reporters can't ALL be acting in a vacuum—their editors would never let them ALL stab our sane and capable president in the back unless there was a larger plan in place.
 
The plan seems pretty obvious. Our establishment news media believes it is their patriotic duty to do whatever is necessary to defeat Donald Trump, and they have collectively decided that Biden’s age and how that age presents itself in public is THE kryptonite that will lose the Presidential race, and by extension, usher Fascism into America.
 
And because it’s still technically early enough for Biden to step down and for establishment Democrats to coronate another candidate, they have decided to make that grand push for Biden to exit the race now before it’s “too late.”
 
I get it. Who can blame them for being patriotic? I do worry, however, that this “group think” is much too dramatic given that LBJ’s story of how he stepped aside from his own Presidential campaign to help Democrats win is NOT THE ONLY STORY from recent history to guide us.
 
Franklin Roosevelt was not only old, but he had congestive heart failure and possibly even cancer while running for his fourth term and leading America through World War 2.
 
Reading this excerpt from FDR’s library “Dr. Frank Lahey, a highly respected internist from Boston who had been part of the group that examined FDR [7 months before the election], advised Surgeon General McIntire that he believed the President would not survive another full term in office.”

Pictures of Roosevelt during his last campaign showed that he had lost a lot of weight and often went “slack-jawed,” which is a term that has also been attributed to Biden.
 
Similarly, FDR’s health provided fodder for his political opponents during the 1944 campaign season. Reading from the same FDR Library excerpt:
 

 
The similarities between FDR’s and Biden’s campaign are striking, but seemingly back in 1944, the entire 4^th estate didn’t gang up on FDR and try to convince him to leave the race--like they are now doing to Biden--even when they most certainly knew FDR's poor health could lead to defeat.
 
Thus, what I think--from the cheap seats in rural Wisconsin that are far, far away from any sort of inside-the-beltway “group think”-- is that our establishment media needs to stay out of this. 
 
It’s not their responsibility to “save America” from a Trump presidency. It IS their responsibility to report, in real time, every lie that Trump tells and cut OFF his access to media coverage until he stops lying.
 
What they’ve done instead is to spend so much time focusing on Biden’s age that they’ve completely FAILED to protect us from Trump’s lies, and that failure effectively normalizes the very same strongman tactics that pushed Germany and Italy into fascism over a half century ago.

Unfortunately, Pandora’s box has been opened. When the likes of the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Washington Post are all calling for Biden to step down, those voices can’t all be collectively ignored.
 
What I think needs to happen next is that we need to normalize two paths forward—one with Biden as our candidate and one without him.
 
FDR won his race despite a strong whisper campaign that said he was too old to be President. His doctors limited his workday to a mere 2-4 hours in the last years of his presidency to protect his health, but he and his team of professional statesmen skillfully guided America through World War 2.

History shows there's a path forward for Biden, but that path forward will only be successful if the media does an “about face” and stops the lopsided volcano of negative coverage that feeds into the “too old” storyline. It will also require Democrats to put aside their fears and work tirelessly to back an old but very CAPABLE president.
 
However, if the media continues to shamefully put their collective feet on the scales of public opinion, then we have to be willing to entertain a path forward that includes Biden stepping down and supporting another candidate.
 
BOTH scenarios should be successful because the stakes are so high. I simply refuse to believe that voters in swing states like Wisconsin will choose a convicted felon and THE MOST VILE candidate we’ve ever had for President, regardless of whether Biden or a new surrogate is our flag-bearer. Wisconsinites may be divided, but we still have a collective moral compass, and I’m sure we will reject Trump in November if we can unite around ANY other reasonable candidate.

My prediction is that if the 4^th Estate doesn’t collectively let up on Biden throughout the month of July, he will have to step down for the sake of the country. I would be ok with that outcome, but I wouldn't forgive the media for the part they played that forced his hand. 

Regardless of the media's ongoing bias, we as a country must never forget that whether he is our candidate or not in 2024, Biden saved our country from fascism in 2020--just like FDR saved us from fascism during WW2. 

And for that, Biden will always be a true American hero, and we will proudly keep making our flagship beer that bears his name.

We Will Always Be Proud to Sell Biden Beer--Buy It Here Online