photo credit: Savanna Smith
Elected officials often get questioned after they turn a certain age about whether they are still fit to run for office. Many of our chosen office holders are on the older side, with examples like Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell. While many see this as a bad thing, their age has much more positives compared to negatives.
For starters, older people have the most life experience. Age brings wisdom. People elected at an older age more often have experience with the political system and know what they are doing over someone who has just joined the system of politics.
Older people who are more experienced also often have built stronger relationships in all branches of government. This has helped them pass more effectively than younger Congressional leaders. Mitch McConnell, who is 81 years old, has repeatedly unified the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives and made deals with the Democratic caucus to help laws be passed and the government to function.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a newcomer running for the Republican spot in the upcoming primaries. He is 38 years old and has never held office before. A big part of his campaign is running on the premise of his young age. Additionally, he has said things such as ‘climate change is a hoax’ and he wants to change the voting age to 25.
With the lack of connections in the legislature alone, if he was elected president, it would be more difficult for him to pass laws than an older candidate such as Biden who has been in the political system longer and has more connections.
The voting demographic of the United States is majority 65 years of age or older according to Pew Research Center. The older generations are voting for people who they want to represent them, showing that the elected officials are fairly being elected.
A key concept in democracy is that in order to have political power, an official was elected legitimately to office, and they have the authority (given power by the Constitution) to lead. The majority of the U.S. electorate elect officials no matter their age and therefore they are legitimate office holders.
If the U.S. citizens want younger office holders, they need to show up and vote for them. The people who are elected represent the people who are voting in the majority and the majority right now is older citizens.
Around 20 percent of the voting population are no issue voters according to a lecture by John Carmichael. No issue voters do not have an issue, based ideological reason, for why they voted for a certain candidate. This is a major reason why incumbents get voted into office year after year. The no issue voters often recognize certain names and vote based on if they have heard of the candidate or not.
Before the country puts an age maximum on candidates running for office they should take into consideration who the majority of the voters are. If voters want the country to want change, they need to participate in elections and vote new elected leaders into office.
Late Senator Robert C. Byrd continuously won reelection in West Virginia due to name recognition and high voter approval. He remained in office until the day he died. The people he represented could have voted him out of office if they disagreed with his policies and positions, yet they didn’t.
Very few young people run for office. If people want an age maximum, then first there needs to be younger candidates to fill the positions of the older people. The U.S. doesn’t have many of these candidates, and creating an age limit would limit the pool of candidates even more.
Joe Biden’s, an 82-year-old man, economic plan called ‘Bidenomics’ has benefited our economy greatly. There are multiple new job opportunities for citizens, and this is helping inflation decrease. The economy is stabilizing more, according to whitehouse.gov.
There are multiple people who have greatly influenced the country in their old ages. In the United States, Americans have a say in who is elected and who is not. If they want to change the elected officials, then they have an obligation to vote different, younger candidates into office.
