With the upcoming U.S election heating up and gaining more coverage, it has raised a question about the two main Presidential candidates: Joe BIden and Donald Trump. The question everyone seems to be asking about these elderly candidates is “Are they fit to serve?” Joe Biden holds the record for  the oldest president ever at 81 years old. Donald Trump isn’t far behind at 77. It has made people start to ask why the only two realistic options for this job are both so old, but it isn’t just the presidency where this problem seems to persist. The average age of congress and the senate have gone up in recent years, with the average age in Congress being 56.8 and the Senate being 65.6.The Senate only has two people below the age of 40.

This is a problem that is getting more attention recently with the election and the death of Diane Fienstien and Mitch Mconnell being stunned and not able to speak for an interview. This is a terrible thing no matter what side you are on, and it seems to be deeply impacting both major political parties. It shouldn’t be controversial to say no matter what political opinions you hold,   that this is not a good thing when  the people in charge of our government have no idea where they are and what they are doing because of their advanced age.  

I think that we need to do something about this. Why not have a mandatory retirement age? This is a requirement  for many physically demanding  jobs , such as military personnel and airplane pilots. Why not have this requirement for  one of the most important jobs anyone can hold? I think the max age for the senate and congress should be set at 65 to ensure that our leaders will have good mental health and be able to do their job well. I think the minimum age to run for president should be lowered from 35 years of age down to 25 so that  we can have some younger people in office. The maximum age at which someone can be allowed to run for office  should be set at 70 years old, which would hopefully prevent us from our current scenario. 

The biggest threat to our government is putting people in charge of it who aren’t competent enough to run for any reason.  While it can be argued that America has not always made the best choice when voting on our leaders, this issue of electing elderly individuals who are  incapacitated can have a simple fix and resolve an issue that is only getting worse with each passing year.  We owe it to future generations to elect people who will be around long enough to be impacted by the laws that they vote on.