The Founding Fathers set a minimum age limit for U.S. presidents — not a maximum. President Biden, now 81 years old, is the first octogenarian to occupy the Oval Office and more than twice as old as the median American. If he is re-elected in 2024, he will be 86 at the end of his second term. It raises the question of how old is too old to serve in public office.
Biden’s age is his Achille’s heel. His age and mental capacity have been a major theme of the upcoming election and have taken center stage following a Special Counsel report about Biden’s handling of classified information. The special counsel, Robert K. Hur, concluded that the “evidence was insufficient to charge President Biden with a crime” but that President Biden has “significant memory problems,” describing him as an “elderly man with poor memory.” If re-elected, Biden would retain his position as the oldest sitting president in U.S. history, while Trump would tie Biden if he re-enters the White House at the age of 78 in 2024. It’s been three decades since Bill Clinton was president, but at age 77, he is three years younger than Biden.
Congress, as a whole, is continually getting older. This 118th is one of the oldest in history, and one in five congresspeople is over the age of 70. Baby boomers make up nearly half of Congress, and the median age is decades older than the generations they represent. Last year, 82-year-old Senator Mitch McConnell, in his second famous moment of incapacity at a Capitol Hill press conference, raised questions about the overall fitness of a gerontocracy. During a news conference, McConnell abruptly stopped speaking and stood silently for 28 seconds before being escorted from the lectern by his Republican colleagues. English teacher Mr. Essex said, “It seems ironic to me that at an advanced age, a driver is asked to retake a driving test to ensure their safety and the safety of others on the road. Yet an elected official, who may well be making life and death decisions, is only obliged to submit to an annual physical, regardless of age.”
While there are concerns about the fitness and mental capacity of America’s genetocracy, an older political class is not representative of the population. In 2020, the average lifespan of an American was 77.28 years, and the United State’s median age is 39 years. Older does not necessarily mean wiser. With so few federal officials leaving office and no term limit, opportunities for younger people to join the ranks are rare.
According to a survey conducted by YouGov, more than half of Americans support a maximum age limit for elected officials but were split over the exact cutoff. “A cap at age 60 would bar 71% of the Senate from holding office, while a limit of 70 would render 30% ineligible.” (New York Times) The United States needs a new generation of leadership, hopefully one that has not been longtime recipients of Social Security.
