IT'S TIME FOR THE KIDS TO TALK

Practically every family will have this problem if our loved ones live long enough. When to take the car keys away from a family member who should no longer be driving? This is what "the kids" have to discuss and enact when the time comes, usually for a parent.

Sometimes, this is difficult, even traumatic, and others not so much. For my spinster aunt, the day she thought she was in drive but was really in reverse and wound up lodged in large bushes at the rear of her yard was the end. Sometimes, creeping dementia is the cause. My father had a friend who drove himself from the lodge to go home. Hours later he was found driving around aimlessly in a town fifty miles away. That was it for him.

My three siblings and I dreaded the day we "kids" (middle-aged) would have to take the keys. Our father had been a chief of police for years and used to giving orders, not taking them. We all expected an awful scene. He was OK until he turned eighty-five and developed macular degeneration. Soon, the MD reached the point he could not see the signal light. My mother had to tell him green or red. We all agreed that was it. If he could not see the red light, he had no business driving a car. He was a danger to himself and others. My oldest brother gave him the news and he took it surprisingly well. This was helped by the fact that my sister, a spinster and retired, lived next door and could drive my parents wherever they needed to go. We all breathed a big sigh of relief.

It is now time for "the kids" to get together and talk about Biden's future as the Democratic Party candidate for president in 2024. He would be 82 years old when sworn into office and 86 when his term would end. There are plain signs, obvious to everyone, that he does not have the mental acuity for such a demanding and powerful position as president of the United States. His "debate" of last week was an appalling disaster. Nothing since then has changed this. He has not been allowed to talk in an uncontrolled and unscripted freely answering questions put to him.

All the published polls since the "debate" show Trump in the lead with a growing gap. If trends continue, Trump could win a landslide and carry a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. If the Republicans win all three branches of government, they will carry out a sweeping counter-revolution to roll back democratic reforms everywhere. The Heritage Foundations "Project 2025" will carry out a reign of terror (e.g., the 40 inmates on death row in the U.S. now will be executed immediately) and usher in the first fascist regime in American history. The democratic constitutional republic will be erased. Thus, the stakes in the upcoming presidential election could not be higher.

Biden's mental acuity is the topic of the day, and this is highly unfair. Trump is just as prone to gaffes, and besides lies so much he does not know the difference with the truth. Yet, no one is calling on Trump to drop out of the race. Unfair.

Nevertheless, we are where we are and Democrats will have to move soon on two choices, keep Biden on the ticket or force him out and replace him with someone else. He has said he will not go voluntarily. "The kids" have to talk.

In this case who are "the kids"? They are the leaders of the Democratic machinery who are not dependent on Biden, such as Senators, Representatives, major donors, and state party officials. It is incumbent on them to meet, in some form, as soon as possible to come to a consensus of what to do. If they conclude that Biden has to go, they have to tell him that. If Biden decides he has won the nomination fairly and squarely and refuses to go, he knows he would tear up the Democratic party and hand Trump an easy victory. Biden is at heart a great patriot so it is hard to imagine he would burn down the house at all cost, something that Trump might well do in the same situation.

As I said, Biden is the main issue right now and Trump is on the way to a landslide victory. The barbarians are already inside the gates. American democracy is in peril. 

I do not feel qualified personally to say whether Biden should stay or go, although I lean to "go." This decision should be made by people who know Biden well, and are independent of him. It is high time for "the kids" to decide whether to take the keys away from the old man. He says he is not turning them over. If they decide he must, they will have to come up with a way to do this without destroying the Democratic Party. It's a tough dilemma but everyone must bear in mind the nation is at stake here, not just one man.