There should be an age limit on the Presidency.

Yet another vote for: You can’t set a specific number, because “too old” happens at such different ages for different people.

But think of how fun it would be to say that you can’t run for public office after the age of 45!

The effects on the political parties would be amazing.

Don’t trust anyone over 30.

I think a lot of it is that there’s a sort of age-pyramid going on. You can get elected to lower level positions like city council, state legislator, etc… in your mid-late 30s. Then from there, you step up to state senator/Federal rep/mayor now that you have experience, and then after some amount of time in that position, you’re now considered experienced enough to run for Governor / Senator / VP. Then after you’ve done that, you’re generally considered experienced enough for President. Few people make it that high without being in their fifties at least, most are a little bit older.
You do get politicians who skip steps- Bill Clinton, for example, went from State Rep, to State Atty. General to Governor of Arkansas by the time he was 31, and stayed Governor for another 10 years, and then got elected President at 46, making him one of the youngest in recent decades. Barack Obama was similar- he went straight to the Illinois Senate to the Federal Senate, and then to the Presidency by the time he was 47. They are unusual though.
And a lot of voters like the idea of politicians who were successful in their own right prior to being a politician, so you can add in a decade or so there for people to run their own businesses, etc… prior to becoming a politician.

TL;DR- it’s not so much a love of older people, it’s a perception that someone who’s say… 45 rarely has enough experience in weighty enough positions to qualify to be President.

There were huge, or at least very loud, criticisms of Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama for their perceived lack of experience. They were three of the five youngest to be elected. Eisenhower, Reagan, and Bush 2 were three of the six oldest before Trump and while some grumbling accompanied Reagan, their ages were not issues. Some people did have doubts by the end when Eisenhower had a series of strokes and heart attacks and other medical issues and Reagan was clearly in the first stages of dementia. Even so, they had about a 105% chance of their being elected to a third term if that were possible.

No, I never met my grandparents. The last one died when I was seven months old.

I’m going off to my safe space, put on an ASMR video, and hug a pillow. Meanie.

Will no one comfort the grandparentless?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in the same position in 2019 as Joe Biden was in 1973. Both elected to Congress at the age of 29. Unless she decides to run for president immediately once she turns of age (and wins) I suspect you’d want her to have as long a career as he has because if she does then she’ll have accomplished an agenda you want.

Don’t we have 90 year old judges on the supreme Court.

No
Glad to see reading is not a lost art. :cool:

Age discrimination is a thing. But not in this thread.

Apparently, some posters need to be reminded.

There should be an age limit of 70 for all federal officials – executive, legislative and judicial.

Why would we, when most of the proposed changes do, in fact, require an amendment?

I would be very interested in cites that Reagan was “known” to have dementia “very early on.”

Meanwhile, back in the real world, there were some suspicions that he had dementia late in his second term.

“Hailed as” != “was.”

Tear Down This Myth.

I’m opposed to any restrictions on being president. If you’re a 20 year old Canadian-born convicted felon and you can get enough votes, power to you.

I do support maximum age restrictions on SCOTUS positions since they are unelected.

Then there should also be a maximum age limit on voting.

I am an AOC fan. I like where she chooses to focus her attention and I love the energy and passion she brings to the table. That being said, if/when the time comes where she cannot or will not bring the energy and passion or her agenda changes from “how can we move forward” to “how can we maintain the status quo” I would hope that she is self aware enough to realize it’s time to walk away and hand the reins off to someone younger, more energetic and passionate with an agenda that looks toward the future. Hopefully she will be able to step aside with grace and work to help guide the next generations instead of trying to “rule” the next generations in a manner that is all to common these days.

I’m in my mid-forties now and I have often found myself apathetic to the voting process as it has often felt like a choice between a hodgepodge of old people who are more interested in forcing others to live by their rules and don’t give a shit about anything the younger generation(s) care about. If we want more young people to actively and enthusiastically participate in the democratic process we need to give them the space and opportunity to get involved and create their own agenda. And the only way to create the necessary space is to force the older generation to walk away.

I know this is probably coming off as ageism and I do apologize for that. But in my opinion, after you reach a certain age you need to face the uncomfortable fact that the future does not belong to you and you shouldn’t be the one to decide how we get there.

Why? Surly you don’t think that voting for someone is equivalent to actually holding a high stress elected position…do you??? :confused:

I used to think it was a generational gap that was the problem, but the older I get, the more I’m thinking that the real problem is that politicians’ first duty (as they perceive it) is to get re-elected and/or enrich themselves, or recently with the Tea Partiers, loyalty to a specific ideology.

So you get elected officials whose goals often run counter to what’s best for their constitutents, either because they’re busy doing what’s best for themselves, or they’re busy adhering to some sort of ideological concept without regard for the real world.

I tend to think that’s a bigger deal overall than whether or not there’s a lot of concern among middle-aged and older politicians about student loan debt among millenials.

Bigotry is Bigotry.

Because when the response to the question “would this be a good idea if we could somehow enact this into law” is “it’s not currently the law”, then that’s threadshitting.