https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/us/politics/trump-age-health.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E8.AhDN.SSo7pM8hJa5Q&smid=url-share
Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/05/opinion/biden-age-health.html
Fragility perhaps even dementia explain Biden;s decline.
The above article brings to question of who is running the nation.
We need a whole lot of reform, both Constitutional and in broad civic habits, if the Republic is to be saved from its current advanced decadence.
We already have term limits on the President. We need them on Congress and Supreme Court justices. Age limits is very controversial. How would you word it to get acceptance.
The basic question is why do voters vote for senior citizens? Shouldnât they be smart enough to make better choices? Uninformed, misinformed, dumb voters is fundamental to our system of government.
Money keeps sitting representatives in office.
Presidents almost always remain in office for 2 terms. exceptions: Ford-the stink of Nixon-Carter-stagflation
Corporations & politicians like the existing system.
I would argue we are no longer a republic but a corporatocracy masquerading as a republic.
And establishment politicians refuse to retire. McConnell, Pelosi should have stepped down a long time ago.
Geezers are what the establishment political parties recently have offered. Biden & Trump have been the candidates of choice for the past 12 years.
A personâs choice was geezer vs geezer.
That was the âUninformed, misinformed, dumb voterâsâ choice.
But that wonât be the future choice. Likely it will be Newson vs Vance.
I gag at the thought.
I am glad I am as old as I am.
We have term limits on the Presidency only because Roosevelt broke the tradition and ran (and won) in four continuous elections. Republicans (and some Democrats) were afraid that the âmonarchyâ President was a very bad idea, and found bipartisan consensus to get an Amendment to prohibit it in the future.
The reality (simplified) is that advertising works. Many voters donât bother with a deep dive on policy issues, they vote for what is familiar. Itâs the same reason itâs hard for new products to break in at the supermarket: consumers reach the the âgood old reliableâ. That doesnât mean it canât be done, just that thereâs an unnatural advantage to incumbency, apart and distinct from the obvious (franking privilege, TV coverage, ability to raise money, etc.)
There have been many Presidents who could have gone on to a third term, but respected the tradition set by George Washington. In FDRâs case it was partly because the Republican Party (except for Wendell Wilkie) was staunchly anti-interventionist, and FDR knew that Hitler would take all of Europe without US help. That Wilkie won the nomination was too late: the nominating conventions were within weeks of each other, and by the time Wilkie was nominated FDR had already begun campaigning against the rest of the isolationist Republicans.
In the same way, perhaps the quick succession of Biden and now the rapidly aging Trump will spur Congress to think about an age limit, and frankly Iâd like to see it applied to all Federal elective offices - as well as the USSC. âLifetimeâ might have made sense when most people died in the 60âs and 70âs, but having a government full of 80+ year olds is not healthy for a vibrant democracy.
To those who say âWell donât elect themâ thatâs simply fantasy, the same as saying âWell, donât build gunpowder factories next to schools.â We make laws to correct defects in behavior. This is one of them.
Chronology and biology donât often correlate. Iâve seen many bright/spry octogenarians and many ancient 40 somethings. About a year ago read an article dealing with my former profession, showed that anesthesiologists over 55 started to have an uptick in malpractice suits. Didnât conclude if it was due to becoming outdated in medical knowledge, becoming complacent, or becoming slower in reaction time. Needed more data to conclude anything. Pilots are forced to retire at 65, at least commercially. Iâm sure there are other examples.
So do we opt for some sort of cognitive review or performance test? Who do you decide runs the test? Who checks the testers? Supposedly we have checks and balances in place but when the populations attention span is the length of a Tic Tok video there is little hope.
Why? We are totally comfortable with arbitrary age limits on many things, why not politicians?
As you note, airline pilots have a mandatory retirement age. Likewise air traffic controllers. Also police, fire, and other safety related jobs, even if the person isnât doing the physical part of the work.
Many corporate boards have mandatory retirement ages, as do many law firms with partnerships.
On the other side, we recognize that age is a determining factor in ability and maturity, which is why we limit the President from being younger than 35, House members younger than 25, Senators younger than 30.
We also limit people driving from below 18, usually, and drinking laws likewise, although the numbers may vary slightly.
While itâs true that some peopleâs cognitive ability is fine at 80, some do not. Itâs also true that some airline pilots could fly for years after 65, or that some young people have the maturity to drink earlier than 18. But the law must have some arbitrary number, and to me, at least, â80â is a reasonable limit on a job as important as the leaders of government.
EXACTLY.
The actual process of our politics and elections is âobviously!!!â, where we the people MUST be able to discern strengths and weaknesses of candidates and make solid well-informed choices, but NOPE.
We need fundamental reform of the rules of our politics to better suit them to our technological and social realities.
What doctor is going to claim a president doesnât have the cognitive horsepower to be president? That doctor would be under immense pressure to sign off.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5412571-biden-doctor-refuses-testify/
Dr. Kevin OâConnor, former President Joe Bidenâs longtime personal doctor and reportedly sometime family business associate, refused to answer questions about Bidenâs health at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee meeting on July 9. Asked to testify about Bidenâs physical and mental condition, the doctor invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer based on doctor-patient confidentiality â or was it to not incriminate himself?
An age limitation would cut off some qualified people from being president. But there must be many qualified people for the job. It is just unlikely they will be picked by the establishment political parties. They look for people who wonât rock the existing political set up.
Is age the problem? A better question would beâŚwhy do voters vote for corrupt, amoral liars?
Iâd take a good-hearted senile geezer over a diabolical, corrupt 50 something every day of the week.
Thatâs why the stories about TFGâs mental decline bother me. Anyone paying attention should have recognized his moral depravity back in 2015.
What if you were the president of the United States and you had just minutes to decide how to respond to an impending nuclear attack?