Generic statements such as “X age is too old for anyone to be president” is the issue. Some people at 80 could be healthy and lucid enough to be president and some at 60 might not. Age is not a limiting factor equally for everyone, so such judging should be made individually for each person and not with a blank statement.
Not accountable to death is a complex topic, for the same reason that they won’t see the consequences of their ruling, they might also rule for more “pure” reasons and not to make friends in high places or pocket all they can to retire and live life. So I’m not sure that’s the negative point you seem to think it is.
The fact that someone is more likely to die soon shouldn’t be a reason to block them from doing something long term, or think they can’t provide a real positive effect.
What we do agree on is that the lack of younger representation in politics is indeed a worrying topic.
I don’t think you truly appreciate how old 80+ is.
Politics, as a business, is about the future – not the past. I really don’t believe someone who’s formative years were in the post-war era and first entered national politics during the fucking Vietnam war (!) has perspective that is very representative (as opposed to occasionally valuable) of the populace that, themselves or their spawn, have to face the challenges of living in the current era – whether you consider it a new golden age or ”late stage capitalism”. Furthermore, I really don’t subscribe to ideas that have so little resonance that they couldn’t be represented by a gamut of people. If you think you need to rely on the elderly (Sanders) or those with feeble, Trump adjacent minds and actual brain damage (Fetterman), you don’t believe enough in the ideas themselves – and that’s a huge fucking problem. Don’t downplay that part we’re in agreement over to justify that someone, hypothetically, somehow, could be above it all and be a great representative even if they are completely removed from the people that will actually have to inhabit the Earth they leave behind.
That’s not to say I think your points are entirely moot. I just think you’re overplaying hypotheticals that we really should not accept at face value.
Generic statements such as “X age is too old for anyone to be president” is the issue. Some people at 80 could be healthy and lucid enough to be president and some at 60 might not. Age is not a limiting factor equally for everyone, so such judging should be made individually for each person and not with a blank statement.
Not accountable to death is a complex topic, for the same reason that they won’t see the consequences of their ruling, they might also rule for more “pure” reasons and not to make friends in high places or pocket all they can to retire and live life. So I’m not sure that’s the negative point you seem to think it is.
The fact that someone is more likely to die soon shouldn’t be a reason to block them from doing something long term, or think they can’t provide a real positive effect.
What we do agree on is that the lack of younger representation in politics is indeed a worrying topic.
I don’t think you truly appreciate how old 80+ is.
Politics, as a business, is about the future – not the past. I really don’t believe someone who’s formative years were in the post-war era and first entered national politics during the fucking Vietnam war (!) has perspective that is very representative (as opposed to occasionally valuable) of the populace that, themselves or their spawn, have to face the challenges of living in the current era – whether you consider it a new golden age or ”late stage capitalism”. Furthermore, I really don’t subscribe to ideas that have so little resonance that they couldn’t be represented by a gamut of people. If you think you need to rely on the elderly (Sanders) or those with feeble, Trump adjacent minds and actual brain damage (Fetterman), you don’t believe enough in the ideas themselves – and that’s a huge fucking problem. Don’t downplay that part we’re in agreement over to justify that someone, hypothetically, somehow, could be above it all and be a great representative even if they are completely removed from the people that will actually have to inhabit the Earth they leave behind.
That’s not to say I think your points are entirely moot. I just think you’re overplaying hypotheticals that we really should not accept at face value.