AMERICA : THE THEME OF KING LEAR IS THE DECAY AND FALL OF THE WORLD (JAN KOTT)

President Biden can look back on many years of public service. His personal life has often been a confrontation with very personal tragedy. As president he tried, often convincingly, to renew the contrat social with all Americans.

Obviously all this comes at a price for an aging man. It is normal that his relative decline has become a factor, also in the perception others can have or are aware of. The accelerated physical toll is for all to see. Increased mental deterioration is perverse. It affects behavior and also better judgement.

President Biden is obviously frustrated and can sound upset, entering a zone of rasher judgement and overreactive pique. Instead of rallying respect and consideration, he ends up alienating his own deserved support. His entering in the danger zone of shrill denial only increases the King Lear narrative about an old man, often out of touch and unable to listen.

If he were to show more self-control and were able to normalize the overall perception, he would reassure the alerted observers. Democrats would still be willing to give him four more years. But on the contrary, the angry denial and repetitive corrections coming from his entourage are over-invasive. He listens too much to his inner circle and not enough to the well-meaning others who only want to save him from humiliation.

His opponent is smart enough to let Biden auto-destruct. Soon,  the Democrats will be out of time to pick another candidate. 

All this might lead yet again to an inglorious ending and four years of upheaval in America, and added trouble world-wide.