So....we just had a 78 year old elected president, and throughout his term, his cognitive decline got worse and worse. It was covered up until it got to the point it was too difficult to ignore, and then we were screwed as a party.
We called him "Sleepy Joe", Sleepy Joe Biden. And he did look sleepy. I could actually do a good impression of him when I was tired myself. He could barely keep his eyes open during speeches, and he constantly stumbled on words and stuff. Sure, Joe always had a stutter, but...yeah this wasn't just stuttering. His brain was turning into mush before our eyes.
Now we elected another 78 year old, this time Donald Trump again. And I feel like we're witnessing the same thing. The dude's falling asleep at cabinet meetings, after having manic social media rants at, well, THIS time of night (yeah I know it's 2 AM here...). And I'm pretty sure they're covering up congestive heart failure and possible strokes at this point given his medical symptoms, and yeah. It's a mess. Donald Trump is a MESS.
Honestly, one of the reasons I've resisted age limits for politicians is because of Bernie Sanders. I believe some people can be mentally sharp into their 80s, but honestly, it seems like we're seeing similar patterns of decline as people approach the age of 80. Trump is now 79, and he's obviously having issues and slowing down. Biden, they had to cover up the fact that the guy was only cogent for 6 hours of the day by 2024, and they wanted to run him again, at the age of 82. Shortly after he left office, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, with who knows how much time he has left to live.
These guys are too old. Honestly, I'm starting to think no one over 80 should be president, and we should have an age limit of 75-76 on the job. That would put Bernie 2016 in his first term at just under the age limit, while Bernie 2020 wouldn't have happened. But Biden 2020 also wouldn't have happened. And maybe that's a good thing. We shouldn't have these geriatrics on the white house. It's not a nursing home.
I've seen some say that we should have age limits as low as 65. I disagree. Politics is mostly mental work, it's not a super physically demanding job, and I believe people can do that well into their 70s. I could see a role for like 72 year olds in politics. I don't think that's too old. but once you get up there in your 70s, like 78, 79, and into your 80s, that's where the problems begin. Both Biden and Trump were 78 when they were elected. If we had an age limit of 76, neither of their presidencies would have happened (well, Trump 1st term would have, but ya know...).
And let's talk other branches of government. We got way too many politicians who are way too old holding onto power way too long. Some of them are basically so mentally incompetent by the end of their rules that honestly, yeah, age limits should be a thing. Remember Diane Feinstein, who held onto power into her late 80s and who obviously had dementia and it was covered up? And I think there was another in recent years who was found in a nursing home. But it's not even just them. We had Nancy Pelosi break a hip at 84, we have Mitch McConnell randomly dissociating mid speech at like 81. That connelly guy had prostate cancer in his 70s and was given an ethics role because it was "his turn", only for him to die a few months later. He was younger than 75-76, but still. I mean, it's getting ridiculous. Then you had RBG in the supreme court who had cancer multiple times in her 80s and died. The democrats tried to pin that on us, the voters, for not voting for them, but honestly, maybe someone with FRICKING CANCER who is in their 80s should know when to step down?
But yeah, it's getting to the point that this stuff is massively outweighing the one guy I like, bernie sanders, being like 84, still spry, and running around the country condemning the oligarchy. I love Bernie, but yeah, maybe these old guys should get out of politics. For every one of him, there's multiple people who are obviously way too old for the job, holding onto power until they die, and holding the country back in the process.
Idk if, for other stuff than the presidency, I'd set the age at 75-76. Maybe for congress and the courts I'd say 80. Ya know, that's fair. At 80, you retire, you pass the torch to someone younger, and you enjoy your life. You can still give speeches or whatever, like Bernie does, but yeah, we don't need these people with all of these obvious medical problems still in power. When we got people in congress with dementia, it's like...just retire already at this point. And let's face it, if they have dementia, someone is covering it up. Staffers and people behind them are acting for them, and honestly, it's just elder abuse, forcing them to retire is a kindness at that point.
So yeah, again, 76 for president, 80 for other roles. I think that's a fair approach. It's well beyond the normal retirement age in this country of 65-70. Honestly, I think 65ish is fine for like normal jobs. Stuff gets physically demanding in your 60s and yeah, I think mid 60s is a fine time to bow out. I know conservatives keep acting like people should work forever, but nah, a lot of jobs become WAY too hard in your 60s, and in your 70s, a lot of people are just too old to work. It's fine if you're doing mental work, like being a congressperson and you're super motivated, but yeah, again, when you got these members of congress falling all over the place, and having dementia, and having cancer, and randomly dissociating when speaking, it's like, okay, time to retire.
And honestly, Trump is just too old to be commander in chief. I mean, I hate him for a lot of other reasons too, but between sitting through 4 years of Biden, and now Trump exhibiting similar symptoms as he ages, it's like...put these guys in a nursing home already so we can have leadership up for the job. People were acting like Clinton was too old in 2016, and McCain was too old in 2008, but honestly, either of them would've been far more up to the task than either of the last 2 guys in office at this point. Again, you can be 71, or 69, and still do a fine job IMO. It's just when you start approaching 80 this crap becomes a problem. And Trump is rapidly approaching that, at 79, and Biden ended his term at 82. So yeah. That's what I think the practical limits of being a politician and a president are. 76 for president (so you end your term at/before 80), and 80 for everything else (so max 85-86 in the senate).
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