Biden's 5 stages of grief

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With the revelation in the past two weeks that President Joe Biden is mentally and physically impaired, Democrats have gone through the five stages of grief; first, they experienced denial; then anger; then negotiation; then depression; finally, acceptance. But what they accept is not Joe Biden's mental decline. What they accept is the fundamental reality that they are betting on the wrong horse.

And what comes next is likely to be even worse.

At first, Democrats engaged in full-scale denial that anything was wrong with Joe Biden. The White House maintained that he was safe and sound; Democrats in Congress tried to maintain a brave front that their debate failure had been one-off. That's a stance now relegated to Biden's immediate family: Jill Biden insists Joe is fine; Hunter says Joe hasn't lost a step.

But the rest of the match quickly moved into the second stage: anger. Democrats in Congress and members of the legacy media were – and are – enraged by the Biden campaign. They knew, of course, that Biden is baffled. But they had faith that the Biden campaign would not show that reality. They believed that the Biden campaign, even with its ailing leader, would somehow prepare a winning campaign against Donald Trump. When their hopes were dashed all at once, they responded with pure, unbridled fury. Congressmen called for Biden's resignation; The New York Times editorial board fantasized about his ouster.

But as Joe Biden continued to hold on, as he continued to fend off all attempts by his former allies to throw him overboard, Democrats entered phase three: negotiation. Now they began to fantasize about an open convention. A shortened primary process. A Kamala Harris invocation of the 25th Amendment. Anything – anything! – to get rid of Biden. It might break up the party and ultimately sink the Democrats' hopes in 2024…but surely the Biden campaign couldn't keep up the charade.

And yet, Joe Biden continued to adamantly deny any problem. He said only the elites of the Democratic Party wanted him gone. He explained that he was the one who had won the most votes in the primaries, and that he would not leave any act of God absent. He stated that he would be perfectly satisfied if he ran to the end of the race and lost, as long as he had done his “best”. And so the Democrats descended into depression. Looking at national and state polls, congressional Democrats began muttering behind closed doors about the possibility of losing both the House and the Senate. Donors began shifting their money away from the presidential race and into down-ballot races.

Now the Democrats seem to have finally moved to acceptance. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who had previously said Biden should drop out of the race, now reversed himself. Asked if he had done it for pragmatic reasons, he grumpily replied: “Well, yes. He said he's going to stay, he's our candidate and we're all going to support him.” Rep. James Clyburn, DS.C., who had floated the idea of ​​a shortened primary season, announced that Democrats would “go with Biden.”

Democrats know, of course, that Biden is in terrible shape this presidential cycle. As Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reported, “Very, very few think he can win and is the right candidate for the moment after the debate.” But it's a little too late. No force on earth or in heaven can move Biden. Unless he's struck by lightning or suffers an actual physical collapse, he'll be the man on the ballot in November.

Good luck to the Democrats.

Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized American Institutions Against Dissent.” To learn more about Ben Shapiro and read features from other Creators Syndicate writers and artists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Ben Shapiro, 36, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps, The Right Side of History, and Bullies.

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