Next month, President Trump turns 79 years old. Joe Biden took office at age 78 and left at 82. They are the oldest presidents to ever serve the United States.
I will admit, watching former President Biden’s obvious aging during the back stretch of his four-year term made me squirm. So did the recent disclosures of his physical and cognitive challenges.
Now we learn he has stage four metastatic prostate cancer — unfortunate and concerning news. When it first occurred is uncertain but oncologists say it didn’t happen suddenly.
It provokes the question: How old is too old to hold the nation’s top leadership position?
I fully support a mandatory retirement age for federal offices. That means president, cabinet, judges and on down the line.
I respect the wisdom of our elders. However, continuing to elect and appoint leaders into positions of crucial judgment when they are elderly is unrealistic. There are too many downsides.
I don’t understand why this important, yet touchy, issue is not fully debated during our political primary seasons.The last federal census told us that the average age of an American citizen is 38. This statistic means half the population is 40 years younger than the last two elected presidents.
View that age gap through the lens of two key present and future factors: applications of technology (such as artificial intelligence) and how issues of climate change impact the planet. It perfectly makes the case that young people have a more vital interest in the outcomes. Statistically, they will face the challenges and the consequences head-on. Older decision makers likely won’t.
Other issues also address the generation gaps — social problems, education, income, national debt and spending priorities. They are critical to younger generations.
I’m of the persuasion we need more younger people to lead; to have much more direct say in the issues of their time. The government is overloaded with aging baby boomers.
We force retirement upon people in other stressful jobs – such as federal law officers and firefighters, age 57 if they have 20 years of service; air traffic controllers at 56, Foreign Service employees and pilots at 65.
My point is that we need to impose the same standards on other nerve-racking jobs.
Other countries, mostly Asian countries, do so. Interestingly, most Western democracies do not. Even so, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, at 72, have seven years of youth compared to President Trump.
Considering the critical needs we all face globally, I vote for a mandatory retirement age for federal offices at 65, with limited exceptions. These are not jobs for older people.