Give age its due: Trump has earned this.
As Kamala Harris unravels, Donald Trump’s indomitable resilience highlights why experience and age are critical for leadership in these chaotic, dysregulated times.
The civilizations that preceded ours were naturally older, not just in time. We are a civilization of youth. We praise youth, celebrate youth, and seek youth. We discard old sages like so much garbage. We don't listen to them, we cannot abide them, we don't visit them, we don’t amplify their wisdom. But they are our only hope; we need them now more than ever.
A country rooted in youth must be led by those who have seen a thing or two, won and lost after fighting the long good fight, and been forged by fire, not cosseted and coronated based on their protected class. Youth can be bold and stupid—see JFK and the Bay of Pigs. See Bill Clinton and L'Affaire Lewinsky. Americans should never be led by the young––we are far too young as it is!
It was wise to pick Biden over Trump in 2020––Trump’s response to the pandemic was strong but unnerving––though how Biden won was corrupt. Likewise, it would be wise to choose Trump over Harris now. Never in the history of America has one man faced such a relentless war on himself, his reputation, his family, his business, and his very life! Yet here he stands, against all odds. Here he speaks against all attempts to silence him. Here he leads even with assassins everywhere trying to kill him. It is incredible, world-historical, and inspiring.
Another Democratic nominee who is a child of a broken home and an absent father (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama preceded her), Kamala Harris became visibly unglued last night during a routine interview on national TV. Her beef? Some off-hand words by our Reality TV Era pater familias. That's what children do: they scream about words. They invent horror stories disproportionate to reality. If they are hurt children of broken homes, they rage at any seeming stand-in for the absent father.
Meanwhile, seasoned leaders take concrete policy action to benefit something far more significant than themselves: their country, its borders, and its most vulnerable.
Give age its due. Donald Trump, for all his sophomoric antics, has earned this mantle against outrageously deranged resistance from a party and media lined with angry, petulant children.