Recently, Senator Diane Feinstein died at the age of 90. This spawned national conversations about whether or not American politics needs age and term limits. Diane Feinstein herself served as a politician for over 20 years, like many of her colleagues. This, along with the growing age of who gets to be president has cemented politicians’ age as a hot-button issue. An age limit is the policy to make sure that the people in power are not over a certain age. This policy is designed to restrict the possibility of making a lifelong career out of political office and to protect democracy.
Age Limits
Age limits are one of the most important policies concerning the modern political process. Many believe that the age limit should be around 60 to 65 years old. This belief is centered not only, on the fact that human beings wither with age, but that keeping the same people in power for long periods of time isn’t healthy for a democracy. In fact, Axios research found that, “78% ‘mostly agree’ with the statement that most legislators and elected officials over the age of 75 ‘[r]aise concerns about [an elected official’s] ability to perform their job,’ compared to 22% who “mostly disagree.”
Age limits provide each generation an opportunity to make their mark on American politics. Democracy requires that those who are ruled by the government have representation in said government. This means that if one specific generation holds all the political power, the democracy of that nation is in danger. It is important that every generation has a chance to acquire significant political power. However, if the baby boomers continue to stranglehold American democracy, then Gen Alpha will never have a chance at political representation.
Humanity’s Limits
There is also the fact that humanity as a species withers with time. Given time, older human beings will not be able to physically and mentally perform as well as they used to. This problem gets worse with the older the person is.
The reason why is that the physical and mental capacities of human beings decline with age unless they take precognitive steps to staying healthy. For some politicians and generally older people this is a problem, however, for others, it is a very real problem.
Cognitive Decline
Generally, getting older isn’t a problem. However, for those in public office, making sure they are of proper cognitive capacity is of the utmost importance. The reason why is that those in public office wield great power and need to be responsible with said power. To not be of sound while wielding great power is a recipe for destruction. Getting older is one of the most important periods of a person’s life. People should be allowed to age and it should not be a problem. However, the problem comes in when one person aging endangers an entire nation of people.
“The most important changes in cognition with normal aging are declines in performance on cognitive tasks that require one to quickly process or transform information to make a decision, including measures of speed of processing, working memory, and executive cognitive function,” according to a study. As mentioned before this isn’t a problem for some elders, but when a senator is quite literally forgetting where they are in the middle of a meeting, there may be a problem.
Written by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources
Axios: Over 75% of voters want maximum age limit for elected officials, poll shows by Shauneen Miranda
The Conversation: There’s no age limit for politicians − as people live longer, should that change? by
Salthouse, Timothy A. “When does age-related cognitive decline begin?.” Neurobiology of aging vol. 30,4 (2009): 507-14. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.09.023
Murman, Daniel L. “The Impact of Age on Cognition.” Seminars in hearing vol. 36,3 (2015): 111-21. doi:10.1055/s-0035-1555115
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Gurbaksh Chahal’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
