President Biden Is Not a Yam

There has been a lot of discussion about President Biden’s declining cognitive abilities. That’s certainly fair game and an important — nay, a crucial — election issue.

But some have gone more than a step too far, denigrating the president not only as unfit to properly carry out the responsibilities of his office — again, fair game — but denigrating his very humanity by using the odious V-word slur too often casually deployed to describe people with serious cognitive incapacities. This includes a just-released Trump for President email, with the subject line “BIDEN IS A VEGETABLE!” (caps in the document) castigating the president’s press-conference performance (as tweeted by Dan McLaughlin), a substack comment by Ann Coulter, and an interview with Dave Portnoy, founder of Bar Stool Sports, criticizing George Clooney for allegedly covering up Biden’s difficulties.

I don’t care how much one disdains the president, using the V-word to describe him — or any human being — is just wrong, and, if I may say, cruel, to people with cognitive disabilities and their loved ones.

Think about it. That word when used as a descriptive for a human rather than produce is profoundly dehumanizing. The impact — and often, intent — is to denigrate, mock, debase, degrade, and exclude the subjects of the insult from the moral community — and hence, to strip them of the respect and equality to which we are all entitled.

The victims of this characterization are as diverse as humanity: Members of the castigated class come from all races, ages, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, and any other human identifier one can conjure. Indeed, any one of us could be just a blood clot in the brain or an automobile accident away from being entered among this disparaged category, and all of us have — or had — loved ones who could be so identified. My mother died of Alzheimer’s, and she was never less than fully human and as worthy of love and regard when she became incompetent as before she fell ill.

So, please. Let’s respect all people with cognitive impairments by using respectful descriptives.

Thank you. End of sermon.