When it comes to age on the ballot, Texas didn’t wait until 2024 to weigh in.
Asked to let judges stay on the bench until they’re 79 years old — a year younger than President Joe Biden — Texas voters soundly rejected the proposal in Tuesday’s elections, a defeat that drew new attention to issues of age and fitness for office in the U.S.
“Age is front of mind for American voters in a way that it has not traditionally been and they are nervous about it,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.
Others cautioned against broader takeaways. At least four other states have rejected similar proposals over the last decade, according to the National Center for State Courts. And states that have passed the measures have mostly done so in close votes.
The media cracks me up.
“None of these really good election results have anything to do with Joe Biden in 2024. Except the results that we can spin into being bad for him, those matter.”
I wouldn’t say the media under covered the Democratic wins. I also think there’s still real reason to worry about how Biden fares next year, because he is underperforming compared to the average dem. I’m worried young voters abandon him precisely because of his age. Without the unprecedented surge in youth voting in 2020, Trump wins.
“Age is front of mind for American voters in a way that it has not traditionally been and they are nervous about it,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.
Um, yeah, because never was normal to have so many 75+ year olds in power. They need to retire. And yes, that includes Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The Silent Generation and Boomers ran this country into the ground and never gave up that power.
It’s long past time to get the generation of lead-induced dementia patients out of office. Slow Biden, Glitch McConnell, and all of their geriatric ilk need to go.
Glitch McConnell
lol I haven’t heard that one before, that’s a good one.
I’m quite a fan of Lich McConnell since he definitely has a philactery
Sounds like something antibiotics could clear up.
Maybe that’s why he hates healthcare so much?
An age limit on elderly judges is critical where they get appointed for life.
At least these other geriatric ilk have to get re-elected periodically. In previous years I would have said to trust the voters to eventually come to the right conclusion, but elections are really crazy these days
Judicial elections are barely even elections. Independent voting guides never mention them and news media rarely profile or interview them (or if they do it’s not prominently compared to other local races). Plus at least in my experience incumbent judges usually run unopposed. I also think they have very strong restrictions on what they can/can’t say while campaigning so voters can’t even do their own research properly (especially for new judges, who don’t have much of a track record). Basically it’s near impossible to be an educated voter when it comes to judges, so maybe they’re better off being appointed.
But Trump is young and spry, right?
Not in the slightest. Trump is a prime example of what happened to the brains of kids who ate lead paint chips.
To be fair, he’s also a speed addict.
Healthwise, Trump appears to be older than Biden
Lead-induced?
I mean I know lead is bad for you but the body does process it over time and leaded gas has been banned since the 70s. You can’t just disqualify everyone who was alive in the 70s because there was potential for lead exposure.
One would hope that such a bold and specific claim as “the President and Senate Minority Leader have lead-induced dementia” would have…a single shred of specific evidence.
Lead poisoning causes permanent irreversible brain damage that manifests in the form of learning disability and behavioral disorders.
Ok so the claim is that the president and Senate minority leader got permanent irreversible brain damage in the 70s?
Don’t forget leaded paint. It was also banned in those decades but any house/building from before then is potentially contaminated with lead paint. While interior paint has gotten a lot of attention, “encapsulating” it is not perfect nor permanent and the building is still surrounded by contaminated soil from exterior paint.
And prop planes … leaded fuel not banned yet
The Wikipedia article is pretty scary, especially
According to a study, half of the US population has been exposed to substantially detrimental lead levels in early childhood – mainly from car exhaust whose lead pollution peaked in the 1970s and caused widespread loss in cognitive ability.
Do you think Texas would be on board for this as a rule for the Supreme Court, where the two oldest justices are Thomas and Alito?
Imo age is a shitty metric to go by because it misses outward indications of maturity or debilitation. Just because someone is 70 doesn’t mean they have dementia (or dementia could have started when they were 50), and just because someone is 17 doesn’t mean they’re not knowledgable enough to vote for a gov’t.
The problem isn’t dementia, the problem is that they won’t live to see the consequences of their actions.
That’s hardly the problem, imo.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall not never sit.”
Many of our actions will have consequences that will outlive us. The question is whether the institution is well equipped to behave ethically and just. One of he contributing factors is that all justices are of sound mind, regardless of age.
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Not going to argue that’s not the case. The root cause is not their age, though. Thats the point I’m trying to make.
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There’s literal shit-ton of non-boomer politicians acting in their own self-interest now.
Age is not a good indicator of selfishness.
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No, I said what I meant. If you have a problem with that, fine. But don’t scream at me because of it.
Man, these old people aren’t planting trees. That’s part of the problem. They aren’t making the world better for the later generations. They are actively making things worse for the later generations.
The consequences of your actions will affect your great-grandkids but you’re unlikely to be alive to see it happen.
Does that mean you should be cancelled as well?
I’m not an elected official, so no.
The huge plus for using age as a metric is that it’s objective and straightforward. Birth certificates are public record, so ages are generally well known, and there can be a clear cutoff, without leaving room for potentially biased judgement calls, nor room for lengthy appeals.
Why do all these articles make it a point to say Biden is 80, but fail to mention Trump is 77?
Biden is now 80 and former President Donald Trump is 77.
Literally in the article.
FTA: “Biden is now 80 and former President Donald Trump is 77.”
Because Biden shows it more publicly and doesn’t coat himself in more makeup than a mime. But your point is still valid.
Get ready for an unpopular opinion: Old age should not be a basis on which someone is disqualified from holding office.
Why not? Because it is wrong to cast aspersions on someone because of something they did not choose. It remains appropriate to only qualify people for elected office if they are old enough, because we want people to have enough perspective and life experience, and that is directly related to being old enough.
Pretending we dont decline mentally past the age of 80 is a very stupid take.
These are the people who lead our communities. We need them to be in peak mental health.
Then disqualify people on the basis of mental decline.
Or we can disqualify them based on “we know youre declining because of basic biological fact, and you dont need to be so fucking obsessed with power that you cling to it at 80 fucking years old, step down and retire.”
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How so?
It remains appropriate to only qualify people for elected office if they are old enough,
Fun fact: it’s legal to discriminate in the US based on age. But only towards younger, not older. You can’t discriminate because someone is too old, but you CAN if they are “too young”.
I believe the cut off for age discrimination suits is 40, but I’d have to look it up again.
My concern is judges that old not understanding the modern way of life for most people.
The life of a moden 25 year old and a 75 year old judge when he was 25 are so different they may as well have been from opposite ends of the world.
The real problem lies in the how SCOTUS rules on Constitutional matters, using “original intent” vs “original intent AND current societal, technological, etc changes” (which is how Canada’s SCoC rules).
Saying a class of people shouldn’t be making rights for the country when they won’t be around to see the consequences isn’t casting aspersions on anyone.
I think term limits would rid us of career politicians like McConnell. Why have term limits for president and not far more powerful senators?
The only reason we have term limits for President is because the Republican party wanted to ensure that they got “a turn” in the wake of FDR.
