Although I am a British subject, for many reasons, not least among them being a bit of a political anorak, I try to follow US politics. American politics and American elections are radically different from those in the UK. For one it’s much more of a public blood-sport than British politics which despite the strongly held views of those who participate in it, can be mostly a lot less savage.

I’ve taken at least a passing interest in every US Presidential election since Ronald Reagan’s first campaign but this year’s contest is much more disturbing to me than many other US Presidential elections. It’s disturbing mostly because of what is going on in the Democrat camp. The party seems devoid of any credible candidate that could challenge the incumbent President Trump and the Democrats appear to be afflicted by the same sort of left wing takeover as caused the UK Labour Party to collapse.

In desperation for someone, anyone, to challenge President Trump the party seems to be coalescing around the idea of having former Vice President Joe Biden as a candidate. It is this particular aspect of the contest that I find most troubling. Mr Biden is not politically my particular cup of tea but I’m beginning to feel sorry for him. There are also a number of questions and allegations against him surrounding his past conduct but for me the major problem is his mental health. Here we have a man who is plainly not well and looks for all the world like he is entering the first stages of senile dementia. Some of the video I’ve seen of Mr Biden do not just contain gaffes, or errors or inappropriate use of words, they contain a record of a man who is struggling mentally.

There seems to me to be a cruelty in putting up Joe Biden as a Presidential candidate. It’s no longer funny, it’s sad. It’s also highly cynical of the democrats to put him up for election for President. It seems to me to be self evident that Mr Biden may well either die or become incapacitated whilst in office should he be elected, and the job of President will go to whoever the party picks as Vice Presidential candidate. With the way things seem to be going in the Democrat party, it’s quite possible that they could pick someone who would not be the first choice of the American people to occupy the Oval Office. The Democrat machine could pick a far left winger, an advocate of divisive identity politics or even, although this is stretching things somewhat, Hilary Clinton as running mate. However it’s much more likely that the Democrats will pick a far left winger or some other form of Leftist who holds both the American people and the US Constitution in contempt.

I remember the jokes that went around over here when Ronald Reagan was first elected, such as how he was too far gone and too stupid to do anything but mouth the words fed to him by his handlers. But this did not turn out to be the case. Ronald Reagan really was the great communicator with a vision for America and although of advanced years, was quite mentally fit as far as I could see until he left office and was not diagnosed with Alzheimers until five years after he left office. Mr Biden is not in this position. He goes into the Presidential campaign obviously in an unfit state mentally, something that later revelations about the Reagan administration show did not apply to Mr Reagan.

Joe Biden is in my view being ruthlessly and cynically exploited by the Democrat party. Watching Mr Biden’s performance on the occasions when the Party allows him to go public, is incredibly sad. It’s like watching a once great but elderly engineer who once worked metal down to an accuracy of one thousandth of an inch, struggle to pick up a cup or a once learned and talented lawyer lose everything due to dementia and be unable to recall the names of his family.

Those who are pushing Joe Biden to stand for President should be ashamed of themselves they really should. They are inflicting a great cruelty on a man who, because of his mental frailty, should be being cared for not piled up with more burdens like a Presidential campaign. It says a lot about the character of the Democrat party itself and about those who surround Joe Biden and who are pushing him towards the candidacy and what it says is not at all nice. It says at least to me, that the Democrat party has abandoned all sense of probity and morality and even honour for them to put such an obviously mentally frail man forward for the job of President of the United States. Personally I’d be ashamed and disgusted if a political party that I belonged to or supported disgracefully exploited a candidate in the way that they are exploiting Joe Biden. What is happening in the Democrat Party with regards to Joe Biden is utterly disgusting. Even though I’m not an American and reside a long long way away from America, I feel that I have a moral duty to call out what is, in my view, a terrible act of exploitation of an increasingly vulnerable man.