Between Biden’s baggage and Trump’s indictments, the country needs a fresh start

When President John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, his inauguration saw not just a change in political parties, but a generational shift in the leadership of our nation.

Kennedy told the assembled crowd and those watching at home that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.” Times were changing, and a new generation of leaders — including Kennedy and his 1960 GOP opponent, Richard Nixon — was stepping forward to take the place of the old.

Remember when that used to happen? In 1992, the last of Kennedy and Nixon’s generation of World War II veterans yielded to the baby boomers in the person of Bill Clinton. They’ve never left, except to yield to an even older man in Joe Biden (born 1942). And unlike the passing of the old order in 1960 or 1992, the trailing end of the boomer and boomer-adjacent presidencies is increasingly shambolic and corrupt.

We owe it to ourselves to give the country a fresh start.

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A New York Times/Siena poll released last week shows the front-runners for the two major parties, Biden and Donald Trump, neck and neck in the race for another term. It seems like a time when a new voice — one that is free of scandal — might be an easy ticket to victory. Instead, the Democrats are determined to renominate the 80-year-old president, even as deepening concern over his son’s business dealings drag his reputation and his approval rating lower.

The latest revelations about Biden’s role in his son’s influence peddling have forced the White House and its allies to change their stories once again. When running for office in 2020 — when, we should note, some of this malfeasance was already known — Biden told the press that he had “never discussed” business with his son Hunter. Earlier this month, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shifted that disclaimer ever so slightly, telling reporters that President Biden “was never in business with his son.”

After last week’s congressional testimony by Hunter’s former friend and business associate, Devon Archer, Biden’s friends in Congress and the press shifted that yet again. Sure, Hunter’s dad talked on the phone with his business partners, but they never talked business. Just chatting about the weather! Hunter, in this latest version of the story, was only selling “the illusion of access.”

If it’s such a nothing story, it’s strange that the U.S. Department of Justice offered Hunter a plea deal so sweeping that the prosecutor was forced to admit that it had no precedent in the department’s history. After being told by the judge to rethink things, Hunter’s new plea agreement dropped the offending clause — DOJ’s promise never to prosecute him on anything he did in the past, even things that were not the subject of the pending gun and tax charges. If this doesn’t raise the question of special treatment, I’m not sure what would.

Against this tired, corrupt administration, Republicans have a chance for an easy victory. So, of course, they won’t do that. Instead, former President Trump sits atop the polls, seemingly rising in popularity with each passing indictment.

It’s hard to believe that Americans would look at the 2020 election and say, “Yeah, let’s run it back.” But here we are.

Trump’s latest indictment, whether it is successful in proving a crime or not, is just more evidence of his deficient character and lack of presidential temperament. It’s not as tawdry or grasping as the Biden family’s alleged enrichment through their access to political power (though Trump’s relatives stand accused of some of that, too), but it is far more serious.

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Selling access — sorry, “the illusion of access” — to high office is bad, but subverting the Constitution in an attempt to keep power, as Trump is accused of doing, undermines more than one man or one administration; it erodes the very basis of our republican form of government. Fair and free elections and the peaceful transfer of power are essential to a republic. We’ve spent nearly 250 years building up these ideals, but they only need to be violated a few times before people start to see them as mere suggestions.

To say that the current generation of presidents are past their prime is not to attack all people their age. Saying “All boomers do this” or “All Gen Xers do that” is lazy thinking. But maybe, after 32 years of increasingly degraded leadership, the American people could be forgiven for looking elsewhere for our next chief executive. It’s time to pass that torch again.

If you agree, you’re not the only one. Another factoid from that New York Times poll is that if Trump and Biden are both renominated, 14% of respondents said they would vote for some other person — even though this was not one of the answers suggested in the polling question. A small but growing minority is telling anyone who will listen that if this is the best the two parties have to offer, it’s just not good enough to win their votes.

One or both of those parties ought to listen to them.