My last article was a book review about Fight, which outlines the chaotic politics in the 2024 American presidential election. One sub-arc is the Biden presidency addled by dementia. The authors blame Joe Biden for breaking his promise to be a one-term president.
My review said that blame is more systematic than one person (or a few people) making one bad (or a few bad decisions). If the system had not generated the “second-term” decision, it would have generated another bad decision.
This article shows how the TDG will handle a politician who is no longer serving well.
The Basic TDG Structure
To explain the TDG, I imagined a city of 100,000 citizens. Then I created a TDG structure for that city.
A Glimpse of Our Future Democracy
Now I will put a Joe-Biden-like character in that structure.
Beau Jiden
After Beau Jiden finished college with a sociology degree, he worked a year as a laborer on a construction site. He got enough money to backpack in Europe and Asia for another year. He returned to his home city and found a job as a director of a non-profit organization.
Beau married and started raising a family in Waskada, one of 500 TDG neighborhoods in the city.
Beau took his TDG voting responsibility seriously. He was often chatting with neighbors. He analyzed which of his neighbors was worthy of his vote, using his understanding of “good character” and “capacity for governance.” He voted every year.
When Beau was 35 years old, his neighbors elected him as Waskada’s representative. Beau was not surprised because his numbers were slowly increasing with each TDG annual election. More of his neighbors were seeing him as a future competent TDG representative.
His neighbors were not wrong. Beau seemed to have some flair for TDG governance. Two years later, he was elected as a district representative. He was one of 60 citizens who were given a bigger responsibility in governance.
When Beau was 45 years old, a family crisis meant he could not attend many TDG meetings. Enough of his neighbors realized that it would be best for Beau to forego his TDG work. They found someone else in the next annual election.
Three years later, the family crisis was resolved. Beau quickly regained his neighborhood and district positions.
When Beau was 51 years old, the 60 district representatives elected Beau to serve in the Council. This 10-member group was the main decision-maker of the city. Beau resigned from his non-profit profession to serve in this full-time political job. He really loved this work.
Beau has held this position for the last 26 years. He has earned the trust and respect of many current and former TDG representatives. Many citizens of the city hold him in high regard. He has been part of many big decisions, and the current Council appreciates hearing his insights for why previous Councils made the decisions that they did.
The Slide
This year, Beau has been losing mental cognition. He is not as sharp in Council meetings as he used to be. He appears tired. He sometimes loses train of thought while speaking. His public speaking is slow and less logical. His fellow Council members have assumed more of his public function duties. Some of the 60 districts representatives also notice the slide. They start wondering about Beau’s “capacity for governance.”
Beau wins the next election for Council. But his vote count is lower than the previous election.
Beau’s condition will likely worsen in the next year. More of the 60 district representatives will know Beau is sliding. They will weigh Beau’s great TDG experience against his lessening abilities. But his time in the TDG is now limited.
And there are other competent district representatives to vote into the Council.
Hopefully Beau recognizes this future. He might be happy to continue serving until a TDG election forces him to retire. Or he just might retire early to avoid the result of that election. In either case, the TDG is allowing a long- and well-serving TDG representative to retire gracefully.
The slide into dementia could mean a not-so-graceful exit. But with the TDG, Beau does not have an inner circle of political advisors who have a vested interest in keeping him in the Council. The exit may not be graceful to Beau, but it will be quick and timely. The TDG elections will speak — and probably at the right time.
Beau Jiden served the TDG competently and admirably for four decades. His later mental illness should not be a blot on his distinguished TDG career.
Published on Medium 2025
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