07/01/2024
Mel's Musings-How Old Is too Old?
There are lots of things we think people have to be “old enough” to do. Kids can’t get a license to drive a vehicle in South Dakota until they are 14 years old. Teenagers can get married as young as 16, provided their folks give permission. The age of 18 opens the door to voting, registration for military service and entering into contracts – including buying a car or a house – and so on. The age of 21 used to be the age of majority for everything when I was a kid, now 21 is the magic age for legally partaking of vices – ci******es, gambling, alcohol and, if voters approve it in November, recreational ma*****na.
There really are no laws laying out things a person is “too old” for. Sure, there are activities you shouldn’t do once you’re older (climbing on your roof to clean the gutters may be one of them) or things your doctor tells you to stop doing as you age or common sense kicking in and reminding you that you’re not as young as you used to be. However, I’m unaware of any law that says, “don’t do that because you’re too old”. At some point, and it’s different for everyone, people cease to get older by one calendar year and actually start to age, physically and mentally, more like in dog years as time goes by and life nears its end.
When I was in the Legislature (Sessions 1993-2004) I sponsored several bills and was asked to sign on hundreds more. Early in my time in Pierre, I was asked to sign on to a bill that would require seniors (I can’t remember now, but I think the proposed age was 70) to take the driver’s test when they went to renew their driver’s license. Not just the eye exam, the drive the car with the examiner and also pass the written “rules of the road” test. The earnest legislator thrust this radioactive piece of kryptonite bill at me and asked me to sign. I emphatically said, “NO!” Dejected, the legislator wanted to know “why not?” I replied that I did not have a political death wish.
The blue hairs, geriatrics, walker dependent, “I’m old so I’ll idle down the street in my vehicle for a while and then park however I want to” crowd led by the pit bulls of AARP came swarming into Pierre like the furies of Greek mythology. That legislator was the loneliest person in Pierre. Like a l***r from Biblical times, he was shunned in the halls lest the stink of the “anti-senior, age discrimination, take away Grandma’s independence” bill should taint those who passed by. I’ve been beaten up legislatively and shellacked metaphorically, but the pummeling this hapless legislator took was of epidemic proportions. The Opponents poured it on and in the end, no one voted for it – including the legislator who introduced it. By the way, he lost his next election. The idea was a live gr***de of legislation, but it wasn’t bad public policy. It was just terrible politics.
The message had been sent. The lesson had been learned. Don’t mess with the older crowd. They vote, and while they may not have their own teeth anymore there’s still plenty of bite left in them.
I’m a senior citizen myself now, Social Security eligible. The very first Social Security check was issued on January 31, 1940, to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont in the amount of $22.52. That was her total for the month from Social Security. The average American income in 1940 was $1368 annually and Mrs. Fuller on Social Security would have made $270 and change for the year. In today’s dollars, $22.52 works out to about $504 and $1368 to around $30,500. The government chose the age of 65 for Social Security so they wouldn’t have to pay people, as a general rule. That’s because the average life expectancy of the American male in 1940 was 60.8 and for American women it was 65.2 years. That low life expectancy was one of the reasons, sometime after Social Security was first instituted, that the age of initial eligibility was eventually lowered to 62, albeit at reduced benefits.
In 2024, the average life expectancy was 76.1 for American men and 81.1 for women. Americans are living longer today but does that mean they should continue to do “everything” into old age?
I watched the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, and it was discouraging. President Biden’s performance was a train wreck and President Trump’s a single car crash. It was clear that, at 78, Donald Trump has lost a step and Biden, at 81, has lost a couple of strides. While Trump is a “young” 78 and Biden is an ancient 81, they both are clearly too old to be president.
Biden reminds me of my grandmother. She was a bit diminished physically but sharp as a tack mentally, although she did have a difficult time getting her thoughts from her brain to her tongue and out in a coherent manner. I always knew she was talking to me when she ran through the litany of male relatives’ monikers, trying to get to and remember my name. Biden rambled and rasped. Biden stumbled. Biden paused, sometimes for a painfully long period of time. However, his answers were correct and substantive, with a Democratic Party priorities spin of course, but the communication of them….oh boy.
Trump on the other hand was articulate in presentation. However, his trouble was not vocal but factual; much of what he had to say had little relation to reality. Whether this was because he lives in an alternate universe where whatever he says is true just because he says it regardless of what he says, or perhaps he was engaging in an ultra-extreme over-the-top version of politician’s spin where up is down and black is white or whether he is just addled by age is hard to determine.
I thought where Trump was the strongest and Biden the weakest was on immigration and the border. Likewise, in my opinion, where Biden was the strongest and Trump was the weakest was on the subject of the preservation of our democratic way of life and calling the January 6th insurrection what it was, the use of violence and intimidation to try to overthrow a free and fair election and an attempt to put the United States on the path towards authoritarianism and dictatorship.
Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia, and Xi Jinping, the dictator of China, are both 71 years old. The youngest leader in the world is the President of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traore at 36. The oldest world leader is the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya at 91. According to the Pew Research Center, Joe Biden is the 9th oldest leader in the world. The Pew Research Center also points out that 16% of world leaders are in their 40’s, 22% in their 50’s, 34% in their 60’s, 19% in their 70’s and 5% are in their 80’s.
Uganda has a law that says their president can’t be older than 75. Norway has an upper age limit of 70 for judges and government officials. The Netherlands has a law that says that mayors can’t be older than 69. Here in the United States, Pennsylvania has a law stating judges must leave the bench by age 75. In Vermont, judges must be younger than 90; that’s not much of an age limit, but it is one. North Dakota just passed a law that says that congressional candidates (US House and US Senate) are ineligible to run for election if they will turn 81 during their term. That’s probably unconstitutional since the Supreme Court has already ruled, in a case involving states mandating congressional term limits, that states have no power over federal officials. That power rests with the US Constitution, therefore any upper age limits for office would probably have to be imposed by a constitutional amendment.
The Constitution sets out minimum ages, 25 to serve in the US House of Representatives, 30 for election to the US Senate and 35 to be president. However, there is no maximum age. President Reagan was in the beginning stages of dementia at the end of his second term, which turned into full blown Alzheimer’s as he aged. When you look at pictures of presidents the day they were first elected and then the day they left office, it’s a night and day difference. The demands and stresses of the job take their toll. Look at pictures of Lincoln when he was elected at 52, he looks distinguished. Then look at pictures of Lincoln just days before his assassination at age 56, he looks like your great grandfather – wizened, weary and old. Barack Obama looked youthful and vibrant upon his election. When he left office, he looked grizzled and haggard.
No matter what your politics, both major candidates are too old to serve as president. It seems logical to me that whoever is elected Vice President in November will be the President sometime in the next four years. We need an age limit on all public offices. My suggestion would be the age of 70. I would write the constitutional amendment to say that no one over 70 may be elected to government office. If one were 69, as Reagan was upon his election, I would allow that person to be elected and serve their term but then be barred from running for reelection. When Senator Robert Dole (R-Kansas) ran for president in 1996 at age 73 against incumbent President Bill Clinton, who was 50 at the time, Dole promised to serve only one term in response to those critics concerned about his age. He never had to keep that promise because Clinton won reelection handily.
I think Republicans missed a trick when they didn’t nominate Nikki Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina and US Ambassador to the United Nations, for president and the Democrats missed the boat when they didn’t consider an alternative to President Biden.
I don’t have candles on my birthday cake for two reasons. First, all those candles would be a fire hazard and second, I don’t have the wind to blow out that many candles anymore. Politics is no different than police work, firefighting, construction or lots of other occupations where a person just gets too old or feeble to do the job. It’s time for age limits on politicians running for office in the United States.
