Should People in Their 80s Run For Office?

The answer is pretty obviously no.

Bill Pascrell died yesterday and all I could think about was Biden. Pascrell was a good congressman, mostly, representing NJ-9. He had some bad votes over the years, but was mostly a very solid liberal and a bit of a character. He also was 87 years old, was finishing his 14th term in Congress, and was running for another term! Why? His district is not that close–it’s Dem +8, so one could see a Republican winning in a disastrous election for Democrats, but any decent Democrat should be able to win this district.

Again, I could only reflect this through Biden. While, yes, technically we can’t know that Biden wouldn’t have done just as well as Harris has since she took over the nomination, as Scott says, it’s about the most obvious counterfactual of all time. I have a really hard time understanding people who continue to claim that Biden would be doing just as well, especially given the rapid change in polling numbers and in fundraising, as the party moves from deep despair to a fighting force behind a new leader ready to kick Trump’s ass or go down trying. I mean, what possible explanation could you have for this kind of turnaround given where we were a month ago?

Now, there’s no good reason for someone like Pascrell to continue to run. Anyone can be a congressman. It’s not a job that takes some kind of special talent. He dies and the voters there have no congressman for a few months, which isn’t great. Being president does take more talent, of course. But really, there are a few dozen Democrats who would make perfectly good presidents. And the problem with nominating someone in their 80s is that they are probably going to die, either suddenly or after a long, slow decline. This isn’t “ageism.” It’s an accurate description of human aging.

While people do differ in their capabilities as they age, I do think there should be a general rule that someone over 75 or so should not be running for office. That doesn’t mean older people can’t be involved in politics. Absolutely not, there’s a zillion things to do, from serving as senior advisors to doing the day to day work that politics require. But in terms of running for office, what possible reason is there for someone in their 80s to be doing this, outside of some very specific circumstance? I can think of one. Jon Tester is 68 years old. It’s unlikely another Democrat is going to win in Montana for a very long time. So if he wins in November, he should keep running until he loses or dies because that’s a case where there really isn’t any good option. But that’s a very different electoral issue than president or some solidly blue district or state.

The actual ageism in this country is mostly against younger people, especially given the housing market, student debt, etc. Being bottled up in politics is another example thanks to a gerontocracy that is only, just finally, starting to move on, whether by choice or not. There is real ageism against older people in the employment market, yes. I grant you that. But we need to stop pretending like it’s completely fine for people in their 80s to be our political leaders because such a thing is totally bonkers and just putting our head in the sand about the natural process of aging is insane, as so many people at this site did with Joe Biden. I get it sucks to get old! I am not looking forward to it either. But you know who should not be doing anything of political importance in their 80s? Me. Or anyone else either, but especially me.