In 1976, a newly renovated Yankee Stadium opened and the team returned from its two-year hiatus playing in the Mets’ ballpark in Queens. It was my first year watching baseball and I was captivated. By August, the Yanks had opened a commanding lead in their division and were headed to the playoffs for the first time since 1964. They would go on to get swept in the World Series by Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine led by Sparky Anderson, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bench. That broke my little elementary school heart, but on Old Timer’s Day in August, everything looked as good as it could be. Joe DiMaggio and Whitey Ford were in the dugout with my favorite players, Thurman Munson and Catfish Hunter. Mickey Mantle, who retired in 1968, the year before I was born, was happy to see the team winning again. When asked why it had taken so long to turn things around he said, “We got old together, that’s what happened to the Yankees,” Mantle said, tracing the decline and fall of the empire. “We got old at the same time, and the club got nothing back in return.”
That’s kind of what it feels like looking at our leadership here in America. Our president is old. He’s doing a really great job, but he’s definitely showing his age and its greatly concerning to the public. At least, that’s what people consistently tells pollsters. Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein is showing signs of dementia. And Mitch McConnell has now had two very public episodes where he went into some kind of fugue state for half a minute or more, kind of like when you have the beachball of death show up on your computer screen and all functions cease for a while.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze for about 30 seconds on Wednesday while speaking with reporters after a speech in Covington, Kentucky.
The incident is similar to an episode McConnell experienced at the US Capitol late last month and is likely to raise additional questions about the fitness of the 81-year-old to lead the Senate Republican caucus.
We all get old, at least if we’re lucky. Sometimes we work or drive a little longer than we should. Sometimes friends or relatives have to gently nudge us off the stage before we hurt ourselves or others. It looks like that time may have come for McConnell.
Of course, President Biden was gracious:
“Mitch is a friend, as you know – not a joke, I know people don’t believe that’s the case. We have disagreements politically but he’s a good friend and so I’m going to try and get in touch with him later this afternoon.”
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene was not:
‘Severe aging health issues and/or mental health incompetence in our nation’s leaders MUST be addressed,’ Rep. Greene posted Wednesday along with the clip of McConnell freezing-up while speaking with the press in Kentucky.
‘Biden, McConnell, Feinstein, and Fetterman are examples of people who are not fit for office and it’s time to be serious about it,’ she added.
That’s an example of making everything political. Feinstein and McConnell are in a different category than Biden and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania who is recovering from a stroke and related depression. They are showing no signs of incompetence or incoherence.
I do think, however, that it’s reasonable to put age limits on federal offices, including judicial offices. It’s particularly sensible for lifetime appointments, where the people have no opportunity to replace someone who is no longer functioning but refuses to retire.
Having said that, I do support a second term for Biden. I know it comes with risks, but the risks exist in equal measure for Donald Trump who will be 78 and a half on Inauguration Day in 2025. It really does feel like we all got old at the same time.
I’ll just drop this here: Elderly Senators Amused To Discover Their Strokes Syncing Up
Constituional Amendment: Age Cap on House Members, Senators, President/VP, and Supreme Court Justices.
Tie it to whatever the Social Security Full Benefits retirement age is. Done and Done.
Next easily 100% correctable political problem that will continue uncorrected because our government is not responsive to the needs of the citizens, please.
Good, thought-provoking essay, thanks. When/if I get back to writing more about politics, I may try to develop something along these lines, too.
One thing we’re seeing is the aging of America, period. We see this in other wealthy countries, too. Before antibiotics and vaccines, and when most people did body-destroying physical labor (generally, agricultural and more recently, industrial), it was rare for people to live past their 60s. Now it’s fairly commonplace not only to live well past that, but to live most of those years relatively sound in body and mind. (See, for example, Diane Feinstein well into her 80s.)
Another is the fear of death and of retirement (which is a little death of its own kind). So, many elderly people with power cling to it despite the fact that 1) they will die, and 2) there’s a whole wonderful final chapter of life that can be lived in retirement (and can’t be lived while running a company or holding elected office).
Age limits for appointed officials such as judges. Let the people decide elected officials. Means a lot to me this year.