How Groupthink Blocks Accountability
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/opinion/biden-age-democrats-coverup.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/books/review/originial-sin-jake-tapper-alex-thompson.html
Perhaps this is not the ideal time to discuss the mishaps of the Biden Presidency. Mr. Biden has just been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and a new book (Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson) about his time in the White House (second article above) has just been published. The book describes a large cover-up of Mr. Biden’s fragility during his presidency and the fact that he clearly was addled at best and truly cognitively impaired, at worst. Michelle Goldberg’s article on the web site of The New York Times on May 16 (above) points the finger at the Democrats for denying what was right in front of them—an impaired president who had no business of even thinking about running in 2024. This is groupthink at its most damaging. And the Democrats are being held accountable by the American people.
Goldberg writes: “Tapper and Thompson have done the (Democratic) party a favor. Some sort of reckoning is due for the disastrous missteps that paved the way for Trump’s return.” Who is accountable for the Democratic loss to Trump in 2024? Own up. Be accountable. Joe Biden? Jill Biden? The entire Democratic Party? All of the above!
In other words, not only can we blame President Biden’s insistence on running again for the gift of Donald Trump’s second term, but also the entire Democratic Party for collectively denying what was there for all to see—a cognitively impaired President of the United States who insisted that he was ready for a second term. As some may remember, early on, after Biden declared he would run again, this blog was backing neither candidate for president. I thought Trump too dangerous because of his policies and Biden too dangerous because of his inability to do the job.
And, as an oncologist and old guy and MD Anderson patient whose PSA is followed closely, I cannot believe that Mr. Biden had annual PSA and digital rectal exams, yet now presents with stage four disease. I understand the recommendations that men over 70 should not have PSA tests because if they have prostate cancer, it will not be aggressive or because there will be too many false positives. To me this is idiotic. If you are the exception, as Biden clearly is with his aggressive disease, I believe your PSA would have been elevated long before the disease became incurable. Biden has got to be a case in point. I do not believe he sprouted metastases overnight, but could believe he had neither a digital rectal nor PSA exam while in the White House due to his age and the recommendations surrounding prostate screening in 80-year-olds.
As to his cognitive impairment, it is pretty obvious that there was a collective will—true groupthink among those around the president—to conceal his infirmities, even from the president himself. His wife, often referred to as Dr. Jill Biden, shares some of the blame as well. She should have looked out for her husband. She should have looked out for the country.
But I want to emphasize two points. First the groupthink. If an entire organization is built to hide the insufficiencies of the leader, this is what will happen. The second point is the result of the first. There will always be a reckoning. The cover-up can just last so long. In Biden’s case it was his debate performance followed by the Harris loss in 2024 and the complete mistrust of the nation in the Democratic Party. That mistrust will remain in place until the Democrats own their errors.
What is it that men can’t say? I’m wrong; I’m lost; I’m sorry. Perhaps the first Democrat that owns up to the party’s erroneous backing of a Biden run in 2024 and its incredible wrongness on immigration, higher education, and economic policy is the person that can lead the party out of its current stay in the political wilderness.
Joe Biden lost the 2024 election for the Democrats the minute he decided to run again. He had only one job in 2020. That was to remove Donald Trump from the Oval Office. He did it. Then, through sheer hubris and the collective groupthink of people who ought to know better, he put Trump back in the White House.
Does this sound familiar to any of you at MD Anderson? It ought to. Look around. Don’t be addled. Don’t be fooled. Don’t be in denial. There needs to be accountability. There needs to be a reckoning.
Do you really think the current leadership of MD Anderson is up to the job? Was it ever?
