Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden and other thrashing “gerontocrats”
For the second time in months, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze in the middle of a news conference, staring into space in silence before being rescued by an aide.
The incident was widely reported in the mainstream media – and certainly was, considering his position and power.
It would be nice and ethical if the same level of scrutiny were applied to our cognitively impaired president, who routinely shakes hands with invisible goblins, has trouble climbing stairs, and forgets the names of his cabinet members.
In any case, it is understandable that people are annoyed by the advanced age of our top executives. However, I do not believe that age limits, as some have suggested, would be very useful.
For one thing, experience is valuable. There is little evidence that younger politicians are better equipped to run.
Judging from recent events, it is more likely that they will be just as rash and partisan, and possibly less inclined to respect the constitutional order.
Politicians aren’t here to push modernity or bring us new technology (or big-following social media accounts); They are here to (easily) rule the nation within the law.
Would a Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Marjorie Taylor Greene prove better stewards of these Republican values? Make me skeptical.
Now, there are clear cases where age should be the determining factor.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, has reportedly stripped her daughter of power of attorney.
If a person cannot be trusted to make their own life decisions legitimately, how can they be trusted with the power to make decisions about your life?
That seems like a reasonable benchmark for pushing someone out of office.
On the other hand, even a person in a coma would be better for the country than Adam Schiff or Katie Porter, so you see the problem.
Obviously, mental capacity declines with age, but people don’t die sequentially, nor do they evolve in the same way.
There are many 80-year-olds who are smart and many 60-year-olds who are already struggling.
Minimum age for office, as James Madison (probably) argued in The Federalist #62, makes sense because as a person grows older they “gain a greater degree of information and stability of character.”
Most 25-year-olds shouldn’t even be voting. But a maximum cutoff age is entirely arbitrary.
It would make more sense to have a cognitive test (perhaps include a citizenship test) than an age limit.
I’m sorry, no one will be able to convince me that Senator Chuck Grassley at 89 is any less competent or knowledgeable than, say, Senator Chris Murphy at 50.
All of this is theoretical anyway, as introducing age limits would require a constitutional amendment.
Because you know what? A solution already exists. Vote them up.
We pretend these seventy and eighty year olds have been thrust upon them by an unknown force. We placed them there.
If three-fourths of voters really believed that President Joe Biden was too old for office, they would look for another candidate.
But the Democrats would rather pretend that the President, not exactly Cicero in his prime, is an intellectual and physical dynamo because they want to stay in power.
They know, deep down, that no one in their right mind thinks that a newly minted Mayor is better than Pete.
The reality is, when it comes down to it, voters across the country love classic cars — maybe because they’re well known, maybe because they bring home money, or maybe because people actually like them.
If they didn’t, none of them would be in Washington.
