It was a little pathetic to watch Joe Biden on stage last night mumble so incoherently that nobody could doubt he’s simply a figurehead for leader of the free world. It raises the thought: While he’s been presented as president for three and a half years, who has really been executing the powers and duties of the office?
While Donald Trump’s performance showed him in full command of his will and voice, his own four years in office also pointed in a similar direction. It wasn’t because he was merely a prop for president, like Joe Biden. It was because Trump’s insistence that he energetically carry out the mandate voters gave him conflicted very visibly with the belief among many in the federal government that, at this point, all presidents are props — even the ones who have full command of their faculties.
Montana radio host Aaron Flint pointed out that replacing Biden with another Democrat will still leave in power the people currently using him like a presidential skin suit. That’s also true, to a large extent, of replacing Biden with Trump.
Now, there is indeed a serious difference between a president with dementia and a president without. Certainly nobody could use Trump like a skin suit. Even staff, pollsters, and advisers can’t micromanage him like they micromanage many politicians. However, because we’ve already had the benefit of a Trump presidency, we can see that even a president as vigorous and defiant as he struggled to truly exercise authority
