Normally when you hear that someone has cancer, you may have questions. A lot of questions. But you push them aside to focus on the person in front of you, the new conscript into an army — a terribly large army — they never intended to join.
A journalist’s job, however, is to ask questions. And so when the new cancer patient is also a former president already at the center of a roiling debate about his declining health and cognitive state while in office, then we can expect decorum about intrusive queries to go out the window.
But here’s the thing: The answers — whether willful blindness, unbridled ambition or medical tests that did or did not happen in a timely manner — don’t change anything for either the patient fighting for his life or for American democracy fighting for its survival.
Beyond a reckoning with how we got to this moment, do the answers change anything about how we move forward?
The timing is surreal, but the revelations in CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson’s book — the latest examination of how a phalanx of Biden insiders may have covered up his declining health and cognitive function — should not be surprising. Did those Biden loyalists fool themselves and hoodwink the public because of their own ambitions and proximity to power? Were they so close that they could not discern the incremental changes that in retrospect were glaringly obvious?
The questions are legitimate, but beyond a reckoning with how we got to this moment, do the answers change anything about how we move forward? And isn’t moving forward with strength and focus the most important mission right now?
Many people — including some doctors — have questioned why Joe Biden did not undergo a screening for elevated prostate levels as previous presidents had done, including George Bush and Barack Obama. A screening conducted during his vice presidency or his presidency might have detected abnormalities on a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test. Perhaps. Others have pointed out that aggressive cancers like Biden’s can spread more rapidly, and argued that the PSA test has its own issues and is not always administered to men after age 70.
All these questions are legitimate, and journalists should continue their virtuous pursuit of the truth. Democrats will no doubt continue to debate and dissect previous decisions as they try to balance the frustrations over the past and the necessity of building some kind of forward momentum. Though most Republicans have shown both grace and courtesy in offering condolences, we can expect them to return to throwing insults and conjuring conspiracies around who knew what and when.
The finger-pointing from all directions will continue. That is unfortunate, and for Democrats in particular it is counterproductive.
The answers don’t quiet the political winds that swept us to this moment.
In this moment, Biden deserves the dignity and the privacy afforded to anyone facing a cancer diagnosis. Leave him and his family alone to wage the fight of their lives. Journalists will continue to ask questions as they should, but this need not become a national obsession. Sadly, there really indications that it is on the way to becoming exactly that.
Meanwhile, Americans who care about democracy are facing the fight of their lives with a president now occupying the White House who cares little about the Constitution and the rule of law. The road ahead for this country is perilous. Looking in the rearview mirror is a necessary caution, but fixating obsessively on the stuff over your shoulder does not get you anywhere safely — especially when trying to traverse a storm. The stakes are too high to keep our heads swiveled backward.
So yes, the cascade of questions kicked up by this moment is to be expected.
But the answers don’t quiet the political winds that swept us to this moment. They don’t mitigate the returning scourge of white supremacy and the unapologetic biases against brown people and transgender people, women’s rights and civil rights advancements. They don’t unite people, or lower the cost of living or raise confidence in our voting process or system of government.
The answers to those questions don’t make America kinder or safer or more secure right now. We see that in the consumer confidence measures and Moody’s downgrade of America’s credit rating. We see that in the likely sweeping cuts to Medicaid and Social Security. We see it in the gutting of so many government programs in health care, agriculture and scientific research that were the envy of the world just a few months ago.
Yes, Biden and those closest to him could have, or perhaps should have, made different decisions that would have improved our lot. But there are no do-overs. Not for him. Not for us.
The former president warrants both grace and space so he can be focused on healing. Send him the well-wishes and the prayers he deserves. But send your energy and your resources toward helping preserve the America our children and their children deserve.