Biden doesn't remember

The oldest president in the history of the United States has just turned 99 years old and his name is Jimmy Carter. In poor health, more than seven months ago he left the hospital and began receiving palliative care at home. His family expected a fatal outcome in a matter of days, but against all odds this tough peanut farmer and soft Democratic president has achieved the privilege of attending his own funeral while alive. In his long goodbye, he even retains the enough encouragement enough to continue savoring ice cream (his favorite is peanut butter) and enjoy the successes of the Braves from Atlanta (his favorite baseball team).

Jimmy Carter left the White House in 1981 by decision of the voters who decided to grant him a single presidential term, entrusting the presidential responsibility to Ronald Reagan. Since then, the self-righteous politician has dedicated his life to transforming and improving his legacy, but from positions with more honor than responsibility. An example that contrasts with the gerontocracy that is currently competing in Washington to remain in power until the end.

Despite accusations of ageism –discrimination based on age–, the United States is in the middle of a great debate about the expiration of its main political leaders. The surveys They confirm the fear that the American giant is becoming a faltering democracy led by the elderly. It doesn't help that the next presidential election could be contested by a staggering Joe Biden, who will turn 81 in November, and Donald Trump with a surprising vitality for evil at 77 years old.

When it comes to occupying the Oval Office, the United States political system has always favored old age. Since the time of George Washington, the Constitution establishes three qualifications for the Presidency: be a “natural” and non-naturalized citizen; 14 years of residence in American territory; and a minimum age of 35 years. When it comes to explaining these requirements in class, for some time now, my brilliant students often ask if there shouldn't also be a maximum permissible age limit to occupy the White House.

All these demands are linked to the paranoia of a republic as new as it is weak, born from a colonial war. But the requirement of 35 years also reflects a certain prejudice on the part of the Founders & Framers against excessive youth, including the 30 years required for the Senate and the 25 years for the House of Representatives. It is worth remembering that, in the United States of 1787, the Life expectancy for a white male (like each and every one who has occupied the Presidency with the exception of Barack Obama) he was not even 37 years old. In fact, we will have to wait until John F. Kennedy to trust a 43-year-old rookie.

In the case of Joe Biden, the oldest president in the history of the United States, his octogenarian status is also explained by the need for the Democratic Party, with its own ideological fracture, to go back many, many generations to find a candidate of consensus. The result is that when Biden entered the White House I was older than Reagan when he came out. But the logic applied by Democrats to the 2020 presidential election has collapsed in the face of a worrying public spectacle of verbal lapses, confusion and public falls.

In the face of all this open-mouthed fragility, an urgent project from the White House to achieve a second term in next year's elections has emerged: a strategy to avoid stumbling. Democrats, including some members of the administration, rightly fear that the candidate will take a bad fall in front of cameras in the weeks before the 2024 election. That's why Biden's team is taking additional steps to prevent him from stumbling in public . With the help of an accredited physical therapist, the president has undergone an exercise routine to improve his balance since November 2021. After the spectacular fall suffered in June during a ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy, Biden has also started wearing sneakers more often to avoid slipping, in addition to using short stairs to board the presidential plane Air Force One. Biden's visible balance difficulties are, according to her doctor's diagnosis, a combination of “significant spinal arthritis” and “mild post-fracture foot arthritis.”

Three-quarters of Americans consider Biden too old for office, according to significant poll AP-NORC made this summer. About half of Americans would also see Donald Trump as too old at 77. Beyond his multiplied legal problems, the former president's increasingly erratic behavior is raising more and more doubts even among some of his supporters.

Nor does it help to allay this growing concern that Mitch McConnell, 81 years old and leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, remains a puppet in front of the cameras, unable to speak. Not even the spectacle of the senator from California Dianne Feinstein, recently died after offering the public spectacle of having completely requested the oremus and preventing the approval process of the nominations of federal judges. Or the previous one Speaker of the Lower House, Nancy Pelosiwho instead of returning to his home in San Francisco to enjoy a well-deserved rest, has announced that he plans to run for re-election at the age of 83.

Between inevitable comparisons with the gerontocracy that presided over the end of the Soviet Union, the journalist David Remnick has warned, taking advantage of a controversial cover of the New Yorkerto what extent “in a society in decline, images of aging leadership can come to embody a general sense of exhaustion and decay.”