There really should be an alert system in place for TV campaign ads in the run-up to the November election. Red lights flash and sirens sound before a show airs, so you can quickly change the channel or duck behind the couch before getting sucked into the fetid nastiness of political season.
The idea came to me in early June while visiting family in central Pennsylvania. I happened to be watching TV one night and a political ad popped up on the screen.
My remote trigger was slow to respond, so I watched the ad, which began with a critique of Biden economics. “Americans are struggling,” the narrator says, and yes, many yes struggle. But this has been true for every president in office.
“Biden is ignoring our problems,” the ad continues. Well, not exactly, but nuance and complexity are a hard sell.
California is about to be hit by an aging population wave, and Steve Lopez is riding the wave. His column focuses on the benefits and burdens of aging and how some people challenge the stigma associated with older age.
And then the part that really caught my attention was this: “He’s been in denial about reality,” the narrator says.
“Is this dishonesty or dementia?”
Okay, we’ll stop here.
As we all know, it’s a dirty season for the wicked and the mean, and we fully expect things to get dirty, especially given the corrupt state of American politics.
But dishonesty or dementia?
This crosses a line and should not surprise anyone.
“If the concept of shame still existed, I would call it shameful,” said Dr. Laura Mosqueda, a geriatrician at Keck University of Southern California and director of the National Center on Elder Abuse. “This is a cynical and sad attempt to sow the seeds of zero In fact,” Mosqueda continued. “There is not a shred of evidence that President Biden has dementia. It does a disservice to people who actually have dementia, and it does a disservice to all seniors through its ageist messaging strategy.
So if you’re wondering about the “not a shred of evidence” part of Mosqueda’s response, given Biden’s occasional missteps, here’s what Zardi, a neuroscientist and director of the Memory and Aging Program at Cedars-Sinai Health System, said: Dr. Tan’s explanation:
“Dementia is a medical diagnosis that can only be made by a qualified health care provider who personally examines the patient,” Tan said. “This is a serious neurological condition that should not be taken lightly. This is not something that can be slapped on lightly. Tag of.
So how is such a diagnosis made?
By taking a history of symptoms and “performing a cognitive assessment and neurological examination and ruling out other causes of memory or cognitive changes,” Tam said. “In my opinion, saying that older people must have dementia is an ageist and unfair statement. It’s like saying that a public figure who has recently lost weight must have cancer.
Someone should mention this to special counsel Robert Hur, who interviewed Biden about his handling of classified material. Houle called the president “a well-meaning old man with a short memory.” “I have a great memory,” Biden said defiantly.
Former President Trump delivered a speech at a campaign rally in Phoenix on June 6.
(Rick Scutli/AP)
There may be something wrong with Biden, but we don’t know. This is not something that amateur doctors or political hacks can diagnose.
The fine print on the ad says the ad was “paid for by Make America Great Again” and was “not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.” According to “Politico”, the person behind the ad is the nonprofit “dark money” organization “Protecting American Greatness” (donors need not be disclosed), which is managed by former Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich.
After watching the ad, I was reminded of the old saying that advises people who live in glass houses not to throw the first stone. Any honest Trump agent or supporter must admit that mental acuity and coherent discourse are topics best avoided.
On June 9, at a rally in Las Vegas, Trump took an aimless what-if trip into uncharted territory. Trump speculated — for no clear reason — whether it was worse to die from electrocution or to be eaten by a shark. The backdrop was loosely around fossil fuel alternatives and Trump’s purported conversations with a shipmaker about electric ships.
If you haven’t seen this video yet, you should definitely watch it, especially if you’ve been scratching your head wondering what would happen if the battery-powered boat you were on started taking on water on the high seas.
Spoiler alert: After telling viewers that he is “very smart” because of his “connections to MIT” (his uncle is a professor there), Trump concluded, “You know what I would do if there was a Shark, or do you get electrocuted? I get electrocuted every time.
Well, taking firm stances on important issues is certainly a quality we look for in leaders.
By the way, given that there are more people in the United States over the age of 65 than under the age of 18, aging is a topic rife with policy opportunities. There are huge challenges in developing adequate affordable housing, managing the needs of a generation living longer, reshaping retirement rules and finding ways to contribute by extending the retirement age.
On June 14, Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, would be best served to address all of these challenges while tapping into the wisdom and experience of an aging population, rather than resorting to cheap tactics and promoting stereotypes.
There may be something wrong with the president, but we don’t know it, amateur diagnosis being what it is.
“The assumption that Donald Trump or Joe Biden might have dementia is unethical,” said Craig Fleishman, director of development at OPICA, an adult day care and memory loss treatment center in West Los Angeles. , and is insulting to people with dementia, which is not helpful to people with dementia and their families, who struggle with this disease every day.
Last summer, I visited OPICA and learned about the lives of Mannie Rezende and his wife Rose. One of the Americans with Mergers disease.
I asked Rose to watch the ad and send me her thoughts.
“No matter where one falls on the political spectrum, this ad’s flippant use of the clinical term ‘dementia’ is cruel and disrespectful to those living with dementia,” she wrote.
Dementia, she continued, “is a series of progressive and heartbreaking losses that is clearly not a Biden trait.” It is “one of the most distressing diseases. It involves a gradual loosening of the self… from early on Memory loss to…loss of speech, recognition, motor skills, and ultimately death This is a clinical term that, to me, as a therapist and the wife of a husband with this disease, is so misleading. Using it improperly is unethical and unethical.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Steve.lopez@latimes.com
