Mike’s Musings: Stop Electing Representative Who Have Spent Their Lives as Politicians

I’ve written about this many times, but as we prepare to vote this year, I would ask you to be mindful of this- we keep electing leaders that have long past the age where we receive social security checks. Age isn’t the only item to consider when you’re voting, but in many cases these lifers we elect are well past their prime.
For instance, Joe Biden is 81, and few of us can argue he has lost many of his cognitive abilities. If re-elected he will be 85 when he is in the office. Frankly I don’t want the leader of the free world to be cognitively challenged.
Donald Trump is only four years behind Biden in age. Cognitively he’s much better, but let’s face it, we all lose some of our abilities as we get older. Some might say 80 is the new 60, but I’m not one of those. I want my president to have 100% of his faculties and have the stamina and vigor of a 30-year-old.
The same goes for our Congressional leaders. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 81, and a mess. He gets up to the podium and has lapses of memory and stares blankly into space. I hear he plans to run another six years, making him 87 in his last year. How can his wife, family and supporters allow that?
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is 73. He too will be running again. Currently he seems to have all his faculties, but at 79, will he?
Where is the new blood? Where are the 40- and 50-year-olds that have a better grasp of the issues and can lead us without taking a nap every few hours?
I’ll tell you. They are languishing in obscurity. Our system of government rewards those with leadership positions who have been around the longest. That’s why, unless we change the rules, our leadership will always be approaching octogenarian status.
One way to accomplish this would be to institute term limits. The McConnell and Schumer are career politicians, just like Biden. They know nothing else. They didn’t own a business, nor did they have to balance a family checkbook. They have been pampered by staff who are there to take care of all their personal needs. We as taxpayers pay for all this.
The aforementioned have held public office for nearly 50 years. Their time, in my opinion, has come and gone. They have no clue what ordinary taxpayers go through when inflation sets in. They get rich from endless wars and insider trading. It’s the best gig in the world, but we have to stop it.
Term limits would provide an equal playing field for all. The best and smartest, not seniority, would determine who our leaders would be. No longer would politicians get rich from their decades in office. No longer would they isolate themselves from the common folk.
But I digress. When you vote this year, consider the qualifications of candidates. Do not vote for candidates that are familiar to you because of their years in office. If they are close to octogenarian status take time to determine whether their cognitive abilities and their years in office are actually positives. Vote for the person that is going to represent you best, and not because you recognize their name.