Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Politics and Religion
Ageism, Character, and the 2024 Presidential Election

Ageism, Character, and the 2024 Presidential Election

Last updated on: July 9, 2024 at 10:24 am by James F. McGrath

0 Comments

Ageism, Character, and the 2024 Presidential Election 2024-07-09T10:24:49-04:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

President Biden’s performance in the 2024 presidential debate was disappointing, but I would like to suggest that that is not the issue that anyone should be focusing on right now. As Rev. Jacqueline Lewis writes,

And I’m puzzled about how we got to a place in this nation’s story in which an 81- year-old president and a 78-year-old former president—a convicted felon—are on that debate stage together and we somehow did not expect what happened. I would have told Biden not to do this debate, but he did not ask me. How in the world is Trump the presumptive nominee for the GOP? Is that party embarrassed? Insurrectionist, traitor, liar, sexual predator, lover-of-foreign-dictators. How? And Biden was 78 when he was elected 46. He was going to turn 81, y’all.

The fact that Donald Trump was able to flummox Joe Biden with his Gish Gallop isn’t surprising and shouldn’t impress anyone. It’s the reason so many leading scientists refuse to debate with young-earth creationists. This is a tactic that can leave audiences who think that science or politics can be settled by debate performance declaring a liar as the winner.

Debates are NOT the way to decide matters of politics (or science or religion or…)

Not familiar with the “Gish Gallop”? Let me share Heather Cox Richardson’s explanation which she offered when she highlighted this debate tactic recently.

This was not a debate. It was Trump using a technique that actually has a formal name, the Gish gallop, although I suspect he comes by it naturally. It’s a rhetorical technique in which someone throws out a fast string of lies, non-sequiturs, and specious arguments, so many that it is impossible to fact-check or rebut them in the amount of time it took to say them. Trying to figure out how to respond makes the opponent look confused, because they don’t know where to start grappling with the flood that has just hit them.

It is a form of gaslighting, and it is especially effective on someone with a stutter, as Biden has. It is similar to what Trump did to Biden during a debate in 2020. In that case, though, the lack of muting on the mics left Biden simply saying: “Will you shut up, man?” a comment that resonated with the audience. Giving Biden the enforced space to answer by killing the mic of the person not speaking tonight actually made the technique more effective.

There are ways to combat the Gish gallop—by calling it out for what it is, among other ways—but Biden retreated to trying to give the three pieces of evidence that established his own credentials on the point at hand. His command of those points was notable, but the difference between how he sounded at the debate and how he sounded on stage at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, just an hour afterward suggested that the technique worked on him.

That’s not ideal, but as Monique Pressley put it, “The proof of Biden’s ability to run the country is the fact that he is running it. Successfully. Not a debate performance against a pathological lying sociopath.”

As a scholar of religion who has worked on science denial among Christian fundamentalists and Evangelicals, I was aware of this tactic from its origin, named as it is after young-earth creationist Duane Gish who employed it to the delight of conservative Christian crowds who like any ideologues are prone to fall for such tactics. It is particularly interesting to note that Mehdi Hasan mentioned it last year in the context of noting that it is a favorite tactic of Donald Trump’s.

Donald Trump is probably unaware that he’s an avid practitioner of a debating method known among philosophers and rhetoricians as the Gish Gallop. Its aim is simple: to defeat one’s opponent by burying them in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant, or idiotic arguments. Trump owes much of his political success to this tactic—and to the fact that so few people know how to beat it. Although his 2024 campaign has been fairly quiet so far, we can expect to hear a lot more Gish Galloping in the coming months.

Age, Wisdom, and Culture

As a scholar of history, I find it so interesting that our culture (in contrast with what was the norm down the ages) really wants someone youthful and vibrant rather than someone with more experience and the wisdom that comes with it. Of course, we might argue that if Biden were really wise he would not have debated Donald Trump. Yet in a real sense his hands were tied. Particularly in this internet era, not debating is seen as a sign of weakness rather than wisdom. If he had cancelled on short notice because he wasn’t feeling well, in addition to the ire of TV viewers and networks, there would again have been the perception of frailty rather than wisdom. All of us at times do not feel well and are not in top form. When you reach age 81 there is a very good chance that that will be even more the case than whatever age you happen to be now. I hope you have not only the wisdom to sit things out, but the luxury of not being surrounded by people and a culture that will pressure you to press on no matter how you feel. In the context of our culture and the 2024 presidential election, there was no choice but to press ahead. Ultimately, even if one were to conclude that Joe Biden is especially frail, physical and mental frailty are not the only things that should matter when it comes to voting.

Character Should Matter More Than Age

Let’s turn to what really matters. Roughly half the inhabitants of the United States would prefer a slightly younger fraud who talks with all the confidence of a charlatan, one whose lies are well documented, an authoritarian, over someone who is at worst merely a typical politician. There was a time when being a proven liar would cost you a lot of votes, never mind being a convicted felon. Trump has been shown to speak uncautiously and inadvisedly as he boasts and brags with people, divulging secrets, making threats, and more. Why anyone would prefer him over someone who might struggle to find their words and then utter them clearly is beyond me. Religious conservatives might say that it is about the party and not the candidate, but given that Trump (and the GOP more generally) has shown that he is not aligning with the anti-abortion extremists, electing him will not help with that issue if that is your concern. A more important consideration is that if your so-called Christian values align perfectly with Republican values (or with those of the Democrat party, for that matter), then you do not actually have distinctively Christian values. Indeed, they may not be Christian at all. When religious conservatives aligned themselves with the Republican Party back in the 1980s it was not because abortion was a concern for Evangelicals. On the contrary, abortion was turned into a “biblical issue” in order to create a voting bloc. Ultimately it was Republican Values that took over conservative Christianity, not vice versa.

Where Things Stand

Where does this leave us when it comes to the 2024 presidential election? No president is going to embody and stand for all of your values. We are a diverse society. What you should be concerned about is that our leaders (including but not limited to the president) be people of character. They should stand not for the imposition of one group’s religious values and mores on the entire society, but on protecting the rights of those diverse groups who hold such strong yet different views to hold them, speak them, and practice them for themselves.

I’ll end this with what Joe Biden said not long after the debate ended:

“Look, I know I’m not a young man anymore, to state the obvious. I don’t walk like I used to walk. I don’t speak like I used to speak. I don’t debate like I used to debate.

“But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I now how to tell right from wrong. And friends, I know how to do this job. (pause) And I know what all Americans know: that when you get knocked down, you get back up. (another pause) Friends, the stakes are too high. I can do this job.”

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"V. good.For me, the gold standard for this sort of thing is still Wikihistory by ..."

Scurra

The Time-Traveler’s Apprentice (A Short Story)

"The one who says "no one comes to the Father but through me" is the ..."

James F. McGrath

Attack on Religious Freedom in Indiana

"Until I read, "As a Christian, it is possible but not at all necessary to ..."

Sam Vimes

Attack on Religious Freedom in Indiana

"Hey James, regarding your penultimate paragraph, I struggle with the same issue. I do think ..."

Jeff Cate

The Fourth Synoptic Gospel

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz