Age Shouldn't Be The Issue

It is fascinating to me that our choices for president are going to be so old. You understand, any one of the three of the candidates remaining for the highest office in the land will become the oldest president to ever give an inauguration speech in American history next January.

Each of the candidates left were born in the 1940s. They are all older than Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, our former presidents.

I believe we are seeing this field because of the simple fact that we vote for people we resemble. People over 65 go to the polls at a greater rate than younger citizens.  That is an undeniable fact.

Timothy Noah, writing in Politico, says studies have found that the median voter age in America’s municipal elections is 57---“nearly a generation older than the median age of eligible voters.”

Should we be concerned our next leader will become senile during his term? That argument is being made each time one of the candidates make a gaffe. But I think it has more to do with the rigor needed to campaign for….and then do the job of chief executive.

A friend, who once held state office, told me she never campaigned more than eight hours a day. It had nothing to do with her age. It had everything to do with fatigue and its correlation to making misstatements.

As I get older, I reflect on the words of Mark Twin who once said----“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”