Age and the Presidency

It's Time for a Maximum Age for Presidents

The spectacle this fall of an 81-year-old Joe Biden battling a 78-year-old Donald Trump for the presidency is convincing proof to me that America needs to set a maximum age for the presidency. My proposal would be that no president can be older than 75 on Inauguration Day. That would, of course, rule out both Biden and Trump this fall.

Of course, I know my proposal is not about to go anywhere this year. Both Democrats and Republicans would accuse me of being against “their” man. How dare I attack either Biden or Trump as being too old? Ageism!

America, of course, has a minimum age of 35 for the presidency. The youngest president to take office was Theodore Roosevelt (42) and the youngest man elected president was John F. Kennedy (43). Americans have a sense that the presidency requires sound judgment and maturity seasoned with experience, hence the fact that no person has served as president who was younger than 40. We don’t see this as discrimination against youth.

Before Biden/Trump and the rise of gerontocracy, Americans had a sense that the presidency was uniquely demanding, physically taxing, mentally onerous, not a job for someone in their declining years. When Ike left office in 1961, he was 70 years old; most Americans were ready for a new generation of leaders, as represented by JFK. When Reagan left office in 1989 in his early 70s, there was a sense he’d stayed too long; clear signs of mental decline had already appeared while he was in his second term.

These lessons and precedents have been conveniently downplayed or forgotten as Biden and Trump once again are likely to duel for the presidency this fall. Both men have shown signs of decline. My sense is that Biden is under more strain because he’s four years older than Trump and because of the burdens of the office he currently holds. That said, I think both men are too old to serve as POTUS.

That Biden and Trump will apparently face off once again, despite their age, tells us much about this American moment. Both men are symbols of a sclerotic empire in decline. Biden puts a slightly more urbane face on a doddering empire; Trump, of course, is the bombastic face of empire, an angry boss-man who’s more vocal in wanting to punish those who resist his will. Both men will do nothing to slow or reverse America’s decline. Both men will do little to help workers and those less fortunate in America.

As a nation, we seem resigned to the fate of two “grumpy old men” running for POTUS. I wonder how we’d feel about two grumpy old women running for POTUS? As a society, why do we accept so readily the authority of aging white men, who are somehow “cool” and laudable, when women of Biden/Trump’s age are rendered practically invisible? Of course, women generally live longer than men, so the reverse should be true. All things being equal, it should be two older women running this fall.

I’d like to think that age is just a number. That it doesn’t matter that Biden if reelected would be 86 by the end of his second term or that Trump, who is seriously overweight if not obese, would be 82 by the end of his second term. Neither is Benjamin Button; neither is getting younger by the day.

If nothing else, pay very close attention to each man’s vice president, for that person is very likely to become president in the next four years no matter which grumpy old man wins this fall.

P.S. To state what I hope is obvious, I love old people. My dad lived to be 86 and was mentally sound throughout, though he declined physically after a serious heart operation at age 83. I had aunts and uncles who lived well into their 90s. Loved them all. It’s not about age. It’s about the demands of the job.