Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man

Dear Dr. Biden,

The American people need help that only you can provide. We need to ask you to be self-aware enough to help your husband, President Biden to become both self-aware and humble as we move through the 2024 election cycle. In order to save democracy, we need your husband to step aside and allow space for the next generation of Democratic leaders to take on the mantle of leading.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not ignoring all of the great things President Biden has accomplished during his presidency. He brought the country through unprecedented times and turmoil. Without his leadership and stewardship after the horrible dark years of the Trump presidency, we would be ever worse off.

All of us, and the world at-large, express our great appreciation for his accomplishments and leadership of the Democratic Party, such as:

• Lowering the cap cost of insulin to $35.00 for seniors.

• Bringing the unemployment rate to around the 4% mark and maintaining it at this level.

• Setting policies that have seen the longest period of job creation in our nation’s history of over 11 million and counting.

• Bringing inflationary costs down despite the greedflation of corporate America.

• Helping to create close to 800,000 manufacturing jobs and nearly $300 billion in manufacturing investments.

• Creating and implementing a plan to get Covid-19 vaccines to the general public.

• Passing the largest infrastructure investment in the history of the country.

• Helping to bring down the price of gasoline and causing OPEC to blink to help keep prices lower than would be otherwise.

• Having near record lows of the unemployment for Black, Hispanic, and people with disabilities.

• Lead the economic recovery of the United States to having the best economy in the world, and as such, leading the recovery for the entire world.

• Helping to bring high-speed internet to all Americans.

• Largest investment to address climate change.

• Expanded healthcare for our military veterans.

• Passed sensible gun regulation for the first time in 30 years.

• Expanded mental health supports to schools.

• Signed into law protections for same-sex and interracial marriage.

• Restored our good standing on the world stage and leader of the free world.

• Provided student debt relief to close to 40 million eligible borrowers.

• Pardoned all prior federal offenses for simple marijuana possession.

• Protected and expanded the use of Obama Care (ACA).

• Took action to lower household energy costs.

• And much more.

However, there are also less than stellar accomplishments that may also be attributed to his leadership of the Democractic Party:

• Failure to codify abortion rights when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.

• Failure to protect voting rights when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.

• Failure to replace DeJoy as head of the U.S. Postal Service.

• Failure to appoint an effective head of the Department of Justice that was needed for the times.

• Failure to address the continual rise of disinformation and misinformation in our news and social media outlets.

• Failure to address the continual rise of domestic terrorist groups supporting autocracy and Christo-nationalist support of overthrowing democracy.

• Failure to address the Big Lie effectively.

• Failure to provide Ukraine the necessary and timely military supports, including prohibiting the use of American aircraft to fight the Russian invasion.

• Failure to hold Russian aggression in check.

• Failure to stand up to Israeli policy in their military aggression against the Palestinian people.

• Failure to stand up against Hamas in their military aggression against the people of Israel.

• Failure to even consider the expansion of the Supreme Court to 13 justices to equal the 13 judicial circuits, thus allowing for three illegitimately appointed justices to remove the rights of women and increase the powers of corporations, and most recently essentially going against all our Founding Fathers beliefs in granting unlimited presidential powers in terms of being immune from any acts deemed “official.”

• Failure to be self-aware enough, as was Nancy Pelosi, in knowing when to step-aside for a new younger generation of leaders to bring the Democratic Party into the 21st Century.

• Failure to recognize when traditions no longer serve the country and refusing to acknowledge the Republican Party no longer is the party of the past and are dead set on holding onto power and ending democracy at all costs.

Former Ohio Representative Tim Ryan stated it quite clearly and succinctly in his recent Newsweek opinion piece, Kamala Harris Should Be the Democratic Nominee for President in 2024 (July 1, 2024), “the Democratic Party’s Achilles heel for years has been a lack of upward mobility for fresh, young leaders.” I agree 100%!

As an almost 60–year-old, I too yearn for new leadership. I too am over having 70+ mostly white folks thinking they know what’s best and holding on to traditional thinking and practice for much longer than is useful. The leaders of the Democratic Party have become like that wildly successful sitcom that didn’t know when to quit, and then went one season too long, negating its success because they didn’t know when it was time. That it is better to go out on a high note than to overstay one’s welcome.

It is past time for the older Democratic generation, and an effective generation for its time but no longer, to pass the torch to Kamala Harris, Hakeem Jeffries, Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear, Wes Moore, Stacy Abrams, Gretchen Whitmer, Pete Buttigieg, and many others who are ready, and respectfully have been waiting in the wings for the elders to realize their time to step aside has come.

Now is that time.

Dr. Biden, your husband was much needed as the bridge of recovery from the four disastrous years of his predecessor. We needed him them, respect him now, and are indebted for his accomplishments. That will always be his to claim. Please don’t let him overstay his welcome. Please don’t let him allow his ego to get in the way of what is needed. Please remind him he is 81-years-old and has earned the right to be an elder statesmen and mentor in retirement.

We all saw his performance at the debate. I fully realize it was just one night, one performance. I also fully realize the decline I have witnesses as my own mother has aged from the time she was 81 to 85. Even one year to the next, let alone four, has seen a drastic difference in her day-to-day living. Thankfully her mind is still strong, as is your husband’s, but four years is a long time and that time is not often kind as we age.

Please Dr. Biden, I ask you to do one of the hardest parts of being a spouse, be honest with yourself, and be honest with Joe, the man, not the president, and tell him with love, it is time. He needs to do the right thing for the country, for democracy, and step down as a candidate for president. He, along with the rest of us saw his debate performance. It is an image that will not leave us no matter how well he now does on the campaign trail. I, and most of us, will still see the debate performance and be reminded of his age and how feeble he presented at the debate. The opposition will hammer that home, as I would if the tables were reversed, to show that performance as often as possible.

Joe is old, there is no way around it. Does he have his faculties? I’d like to think so, but I’m no longer 100% certain after the latest debate. I, and the nation, need a strong vibrant forward thinker leader who presents as a strong vibrant forward thinker leader. President Biden is no longer that person.

Respectfully,

Frank