Old guard political leaders are defying one of America’s fabled political rites – the passing of a torch to a new generation. And some voters and those keen to assume power are frustrated.
The questions of age and the extent to which voters should try to judge politicians’ mental cognition – and whether it should disqualify someone from public office – are boiling up as the 2024 election season gets underway.
There’s never been an election like it.
Joe Biden, who is the oldest-ever president at 80, just launched a bid for reelection. Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican nominating race, would be 82 by the end of a non-consecutive second term. The advanced age of both men is doing nothing to quell their ambition and their mutual antipathy after 2020’s bitter campaign. But it also poses risks for both parties and has fueled calls that it’s time to move on from a pair born in the 1940s.
The specter of octogenarian commanders in chief is not the only age-related political flap. There was fresh speculation on Tuesday about the future of 89-year-old California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose weekslong absence from Washington as she recovers from shingles has jammed up judicial nominations and drained power from the Democratic Senate majority. And Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell recently returned from his own convalescence after suffering a fall soon after turning 81. Only Nancy Pelosi, the longtime House speaker, recently heeded time’s call after stepping down from Democratic leadership.
The rising questions about age spring from a number of building political forces – most obviously the longevity and unslaked ambition of some of the nation’s top leaders. Their prominence is all the more relevant in a polarized and narrowly divided government, where even a small shift in power can create wild shifts in…
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