Beauty And Age Are In The Eye Of The Presidential Beholder
Joe Biden will be 81 when the 2024 presidential election arrives and trump will be 77. For my money, I would vote for Biden if he was 181 years old.
When I was in the fourth grade, I thought fifth graders were really old and then when I was a seventh grader in junior high, that’s what it was called back then, I thought the ninth graders were old and then when I was a sophomore at the high school, I thought the seniors were really old.
I thought that my neighbor, Mac, was old though I don’t think he was older than maybe 44. And my father died when he was 48 and that was my benchmark for old.
Of course back in the ‘60s, the popular expression was not to trust anyone over 30 because they were old. And these days, when someone calls me sir, I cringe because only old people deserve that salutation, just like calling someone m’am is like saying hey old lady, just in a more polite way. And when I look in the mirror, I don’t see 73 years old, I see wrinkles and sags but it doesn’t feel like I am much older than when I was younger. My brain is just as sharp. What was I saying?
I have no way to tell someone’s age, other than with a baby, I can guess that pretty accurately. But beyond that, I couldn’t tell you if someone was 15 or 25, other than by guessing by the clothes they wear or the way they talk and whether they say “cool” a lot. And forget about figuring if someone is in their 60s or 70s or even, 80s. I see some people stumbling and doddering and they’re in their early 60s and I see women who look 16 except for the fact that they have three kids. And I’ve known 25 year old geniuses and 85 year old morons.
In a roundabout way, I want to talk about whether there ought to be old age limits for presidents.
The first known example of a law enforcing age of candidacy was the Lex Villia Annalis, a Roman law enacted in 180 BCE which set the minimum ages at 36 years of age to be qualified for the aedileship; 39 years of age to be qualified for the praetorship in the 2nd century; and 42 years of age to be qualified for the consulship. The numbers are fairly meaningless because Romans were lucky if they lived to be 45 and only two percent of the population lived to 80 years old.
Aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings, regulation of public festivals and enforced public order and ensured Rome was well supplied and its civil infrastructure well maintained. A praetor was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting as commander of an army, and as an elected magistratus (magistrate), assigned to discharge various duties. A consul was one of two annually elected chief magistrates of the Roman republic, if you were interested.
Currently, in the U.S., presidential candidates must be at least 35 but there is no limit for how old a president can be. I could find only one country, Uganda, which has an upper age limit of 75 to qualify for president but I believe the president of Uganda can make up his age.
In the current situation in the U.S., I opt to make it illegal for anyone older than 70 to be president as that would eliminate trump from a second term although it also would remove Joe Biden from consideration, which may not be so bad.
I would rather see other limitations for president, like intelligence, compassion and experience although I don’t know how you would determine if someone is smart enough, compassionate enough and experienced enough. Maybe ask the fourth graders the candidates knew.
I don’t know why the framers picked 35 as the youngest age for a president although back in 1776, the average life span was only 35 or 36, so 35 was a very old man at the back end of life. Today, the average life span for the American man is 70.8, so that makes 35 really young. The average American woman is better, with the average life expectancy at 75.6 years.
The average age for a new American president is 55. Joe Biden was 78 years 61 days when he was sworn in, making him the oldest president, 23 years older than the average. Of course trump was 70 years, 220 days old when he started his reign of terror on Jan. 1, 2017 and I am certain he would have been just as terrible when he was 30.
John F. Kennedy was the youngest elected, American president at 43 years and 236 days. Theodore Roosevelt was just 42 years, 322 days when he took office but he wasn’t elected at the time and rather assumed the presidency after the death of President McKinley who was a spry 54 years and 34 days old when elected.
Linda Jenness was 31 and Arrin Hawkins was just 28 when they ran as the Socialist Workers Party candidate for president and vice president in 1972. Jenness picked up 83,380 votes, a tad shy of the 47,169,911 votes cast for Richard Nixon. Jenness was not allowed to receive ballot access in several states because she was not yet 35. Hawkins also was unable to receive ballot access in several states due to her age.
Candidates for U.S. Senate must be at least 30 and you can be only 25 to run for the House of Representatives, so I assume that the framers believed that age was only important for a president, not so much for a member of congress. In 1934, Rush Holt of West Virginia was elected to the Senate at the age of 29. The U.S. Constitution requires senators to be at least 30, so Holt had to wait until his 30th birthday, six months after the start of the session, before being sworn in.
Jed Johnson Jr. of Oklahoma was 24 when he was elected in 1964 to the 89th Congress. He turned 25 on Dec. 27, 1964, seven days before he was sworn in, making him the youngest legally elected and seated member of the Congress. Johnson ran for reelection in 1996 and lost.
The U.S. puts a higher premium on age than most other countries.
In North Korea, candidates must be at least 17 but that doesn’t really matter because voting is not high on the priority list for President Kim Jong-un.
You only must have passed your 18th birthday to run for office in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Other than the U.S., countries that set the threshold at 35 include Central African Republic, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria and Russia.
The countries where you have to be older than the minimum 35 in the U.S., include China (45), Italy (50), Iraq (40), Lithuania (40), Pakistan (45), Philippines (40), Singapore (45) and South Korea (40).
If Biden goes on to run and wins in 2024, he would still be only the seventh oldest head of state in modern history. The oldest to lead his country was Hastings Banda, president of Malawi for more than 27 years. He didn’t leave office until he was 95 or 98 years old, depending on the source.
Robert Mugabe was president of Zimbabwe for nearly 30 years, until he was ousted on Sept. 6, 2019, at the age of 93 years, 9 months.
Beji Caid Essebsi led Tunisia for four years, until July 25, 2019. Essebi was a youthful 92 years, 7 months, 26 days when he walked away from office.
Shimon Peres was president of Israel for more than seven years, before his last day in office on July 24,2014. He was 90 years, 11 months, 22 days when he stepped down.
Joaquín Balaguer was president of the Dominican Republic for 24 years, and topped off at 89 years, 11 months and 15 days in his last day in office in 1978.
Giorgio Napolitano was 89 years, 6 months and 16 days when he stepped down as president of Italy on Jan. 14, 2015.
Paul Biya has been president of Cameroon since Nov. 6, 1982. He turned 89 years, 3 months and 11 days in May.
I don’t think you can draw any conclusions from Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Israel, Dominican Republic, Italy and Cameroon and the ages of their eldest leaders other than to say that maybe these old leaders never smoked and ate a lot of yogurt.
In any event, I would rather have an old, bad president who wouldn’t live for another term than a young, bad president, who might go on for way too long.