When last we spoke, I had read the first reviews of Jake Tapper and Alex Rosenberg's book Original Sin, which detailed the sad, and in some ways infuriating, story of how Joe Biden's inside team tried, but failed, to hide Biden's infirmities, both physical and mental, sufficiently for him to run for, and possibly win, a second term as president.
If you read the book, you'll see that it was a disaster slowly building. It finally exploded in front of the whole nation with Biden's abysmal performance at his debate with then 45, now 47--partly because Biden got out of the race far after he should have to give Kamala Harris, his vice-president and de facto successor because there wasn't time to vet another one, enough slack to build a successful campaign (which she might have won anyhow had she been willing to step up and address the shouting nonsense that her opponent's campaign was making over trans- issues).
Tapper and Rosenberg are right: Trying to describe the damage it was causing in words held no advantage over watching it and seeing a good man dissolve in front of one's very eyes. It simply couldn't be stopped. Everyone around him knew it. Nobody wanted to be the bearer of bad tidings, so the Mad Hatter's Tea Party went on far too long into the night.
Had Biden been even ten years younger when he ran, he might have maintained the energy and quick thinking it takes to win a second term. 71 is not too old in a political career, and several presidents and many members of Congress and the Supreme Court have proven that. But he wasn't. He was 81, and the strains and pressures of the toughest job in the world had taken their predictable toll.
The present president, as awful as he is, will (if he hasn't already) fall prey to the same, wearing, inevitable forces that time grinds in overtaking even the best of us--and he's certainly not that. By the time he's done with his term, whether he tries to skirt the Constitutional safeguards against another term or not, he will be 82 years old, older than Biden. His mental abilities have already been seriously questioned: They won't improve over the next three and a half years.
So it's time to consider an age limit for the presidency, Congress, and the federal courts. The Constitution was written, debated and (don't forget) compromised on in days when, if someone lived past 70, that was quite an accomplishment; vaccines (despite the idiot we have for Secretary of Health and Human Services) had not been derived at that point, and people fell prey to all kinds of diseases for which all we need today are either a prescription or a shot. Despite a temporary drop caused by COVID, we're still over 75 in the average life span. I think that's a good pivot point.
I propose a Constitutional amendment: No one past their 75th birthday can hold federal office unless they are finishing an elected term. That will make members of the House of Representatives no older than 76, ever; no member of the Senate past 80, ever; no president older than 79, ever; and no member of the Supreme Court older than 75, ever.
It's not term limits I seek; it's age limits. If you're elected to the House at the earliest point, age, 25, you can still serve for 25 terms, which are quite a few. In the Senate, if you start at 30, you can still serve eight terms. If you're president, you have to start at an age of 74, at the very most, and then you get one term and one term only. If you're on the Supreme Court or any other federal court, you stop at your 75th birthday, and that's that--but then, you've probably been there a while anyhow.
There are no guarantees about any of this, but it's a surer bet that any federal officeholder won't succumb to senility or a decided lack of energy while in office. We won't have the specter of Strom Thurmond of South Carolina being towed to the Senate floor, whenever he was able to be so mobilized, at age 100. Yes, we lose Nancy Pelosi, who in her early 80s, remained an excellent House Speaker. But that adjustment, once it is seen, can be made to give even a slightly younger person a leadership position, while maintaining the experience it takes to do it effectively.
I say this advisedly, because I'm going on 74 in a few months. But I gave up on higher office when my time at the National Education Association ended--and I was 57 when that happened. I'm not making anyone over 75 in government quit immediately; they can remain in office. I'm not reaching into state government, either, though perhaps some might copy an established federal example. States can function as they wish--but the same inclinations remain. Perhaps states might pass laws that create such barriers ahead of federal amendments, too; it's happened before like it did with women's suffrage, and there's nothing preventing them from doing it here.
It's time we consider this seriously. We are going through a time when people are supposed to be living longer but lose the substance of what they need to govern before they pass away. Safeguards, though imperfect, need to be constructed. I think this is one of them.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment