Even his worst detractors would have to admit that US President Joe Biden delivered a tour de force in his State of the Nation speech last Thursday. He defied a great deal of the expectations that some have of the tottering and stuttering old man who was not up to the job of continuing as president of the United States.

He surprised many, even in the Democratic Party, who believe that he is too old for the job, that he should make way for a younger person and that his stubbornness to continue may put his immediate predecessor back in the White House.

Now they are feeling a bit more ebullient and confident that he is the right man standing on the bridge and at a crucial juncture in American history. Of critical importance, for what is regarded as the number one job in the world, is the capacity of an 82-year-old to effectively do the job of president. Only one man can answer that question at this point; only one person can be true to himself, based on his feeling of well-being, as to whether he can. That person happens to be Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

He knew that last Thursday he had to assure the nation, when millions of his citizens would have been listening to his every word, some to ascertain whether his lifetime stutter is a result of incapacity due to ageing, whether he would stumble on his way to the podium, and whether he would indulge one of his legendary gaffes or significantly forget an event, a name, or even where he was.

But he rose to the occasion, and those who wish him well breathed a collective sigh of relief. He was not afraid to have banter with the Opposition, even to challenge the obstreperous intervention of Marjorie Taylor Green, the representative from Georgia who never misses an opportunity to heckle him and prove once more that she does not belong to that august body of the people’s Congress. The speech was as historical as it was monumental. The nation is at a serious crossroad as far as the continuation of its democratic traditions are concerned. Biden has presided over the strongest economy for the past 50 years, defying the prognostications of professional economists that it was headed towards a recession.

Yet many in the middle and lower classes, as in Jamaica, are not feeling the effects of this strong economy as they shop in the supermarkets, rent homes, or seek to buy a home for themselves. These are exigencies that do not go away by wishful thinking, and Biden acknowledged this in speaking to these issues.

In a presidential election year, the State of the union address marks the start of the presidential campaign season. It is clear that there will be a rematch between former US President Donald Trump and President Biden. The nation might have wished to have had younger combatants, but for good or ill this is what the system has turned up. Short of any catastrophic event affecting either candidate, the country will be choosing one of two old men to be its president for the next four years. Biden will be 82 if he is returned to office and Trump 78. Instead of quibbling uselessly about their age, this is now the time for the American people to make the contrast between the two men. And the contrasts between the two men could not be starker and more clear-cut.

The lines are clearly drawn. What is of greater import than their age is what they represent: decency or indecent attacks on people with whom you disagree and the institutions of government that are merely carrying out their civic duty; economic policies aimed at growing the middle class and ensuring that the ordinary citizen is not stiffed by corporate greed or policies aimed at making the rich richer even when they are not paying their fair share of taxes.

The contrast is between enabling gun violence and the slaughter of innocent people or enacting sensible gun legislation that will protect lives. It is the contrast between upholding the tenets of America’s democratic way of life that have served the country well despite its obvious faults and bowing to dictatorial demands that will strip people of their human rights and lead to chaos and mayhem. It is certainly the contrast between the leadership of a political party that upholds the dignity of womanhood and women having bodily autonomy over their reproductive decisions and that of the insensibility of another party that is clearly focused on a rabid and almost voyeuristic obsession with the female anatomy.

It is a contrast between a former president who has vowed retribution and revenge if he should be returned to office and one who wants a sense of calmness to prevail, with the country living out the best ideals on which it was founded. Make no mistake about it. Compared to that flame-haired denizen of humanity, the great Leviathan, Biden comes across as a leading character in a Sunday school play.

If elected, the great Leviathan has promised nothing but travail for the American people. He is grieved that the justice system has singled him out for special punishment to the extent that he risks losing what he has built up over the years, whether by fair or foul means. He is angry and bitter and will no doubt use the levers of government and the new systems that he has vowed to put in place to wreak vengeance on the American people, especially his perceived enemies.

He has not been silent about his intentions and what are likely to be the consequences of his victimhood if given another chance. In another age, these observations concerning a major contender for American presidential power could rightly have been considered hyperbolic, but today it is the reality that stalks the land.

There are those in the Republican Party who are prepared to ignore this reality and bend the knee to Leviathan and do his bidding. Even those who have had the benefit of an Ivy League education and should know better are willing to suspend their best judgements in supporting this character who they know deep down in their guts will be a danger to the republic if he should ever be given another term. They are interested in the preservation of their own power interests. The interests of the American people must be made subservient to their greater interest of retaining power or getting it. They are a disgrace to the body politic and ought to be retired in the country’s interest.

At the end of the day, Leviathan, this fearsome monster from the deep, will fade away. He will succumb to the mortality that haunts all human beings who have to get up in the morning, go to the toilet, brush their teeth, and head out to work. Like all human beings, Leviathan will meet his fellow human beings in the pharmacy and then the cemetery. But if he is returned to power, he would have left behind a trail of devastation and misery which may perhaps irrevocably change the country for the worse.

The power to prevent this kind of anarchy is in the hands of the American people. I believe Biden is an old man with whom America and the world can feel safe after November 2024. With the great Leviathan, they should be terribly afraid.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; The Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.