One of the big themes of 2024 so far is that Joe Biden is old.
He’s as old as Paul McCartney. As old as Barack Obama’s late mother. He’s older than any Baby Boomer. He first ran for public office in 1970. He served in the Senate with men born in the 19th century.
That’s not entirely bad.
The most important European figure of the 20th Century was probably Konrad Adenauer. He was 73 when he became Chancellor of the new West Germany, in 1949. He served until he was 87.
Adenauer favored democracy and integration with the west, even at the expense of a divided Germany. It was Adenauer who attached Germany to NATO, Adenauer who led Germany into the European Economic Community, now the European Union, Adenauer who made West Germany a stable, prosperous democracy.
To do all this, Adenauer used experiences gained from two World Wars, and a decade of acting as a Navalny-like figure in Hitler’s Germany. He wasn’t always right, he wasn’t always popular, and when John F. Kennedy met him in 1961, he was already 85. That’s 3 years older than Biden is now. Adenauer’s nickname in power was Der Alte, the old one.
2024 and Technology
Biden should lean into his age. He is Der Alte. He is the old one. He is the calm head, the grandfatherly leader who knows history because he was there, but who still displays the passion necessary to the moment, whenever that’s needed.
What does Biden mean for technology? Nothing good. Too many Tech Lords have chosen to side with authoritarians, and in the process, they’ve made technology unpopular. They’ve demanded progressive regulation as thoroughly as the Gilded Age plutocrats did. While the generation of Bill Gates was humble in the face of adversity, and relentlessly optimistic, the tech billionaires minted since 2009 act like entitled assholes.
But that just means running against these jamokes will prove popular.
It’s going to be a fight. Republicans have a base in the Christo-fascists, the Tech Bros, on Wall Street and in the Federalist Society. Republicans control the media, and there’s a 50-year history of Democrats retreating in the face of GOP attacks. This means we often assume things in America that aren’t true, most especially that money and power are a zero-sum game.
Adenauer disproved this, in Joe Biden’s childhood. By building alliances, by taking the hits for the sins of Germany’s past, Adenauer helped bring Europe together.
Der Alte knows best.
