Monday Morning Musing: Ageism and the Presidency

By now, many in the public square have voiced their opinion on last week's Presidential Debate. President Biden looked old, confused, stumbling, halting. Trump looked, um, confident in his lies?

Calls have gone out in the days since the debate: stay the course, step aside, have faith, donate money, we all have bad days, most sitting presidents have bad first debates. And the hand wringing is epic. As it should be, when so much is at stake.

Here's my short political take for us this year: No matter who runs against the candidate of revenge-and-retribution and the-rules-don't-apply-to-me, we need to vote for the candidate of reason, capacity, and honor. It really doesn't matter whether they are the ideal candidate or the candidate we wish we had or the candidate we might have in four years, or the mayor of Poughkeepsie, we have to vote against the other candidate in order to vote for democracy, freedom, and the rights of anyone other than straight white men. It's that simple. If you know someone who, as an act of defiance or resignation, is planning to stay home on election day, have a conversation with them about how we came to elect Bush the younger (by either staying home or voting third party) and where, exactly that got us.

But that's not the point of this musing, exactly.

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a meeting at church one morning, when a parishioner joined us. She'd just come from the big box hardware store whose name sounds like a train station where, she reported, she'd been disrespected because of her age. The store clerk had been condescending, not believing that she, a woman in her seventies, could possibly know what she needed for the project she was about to undertake in her home. The interaction had been so troubling that the woman was still shaken by it when she arrived at our gathering. And thus began a conversation about ageism in our society. Everyone gathered at that table was over 60, including this pastor. Some were still working and some were retired from fruitful careers but all of us were leading vibrant lives and all of us were gathered in service to the Gospel. (This team visits our shut ins!) Others at the table began to share their own experiences of micro-aggressions and condescending behaviors. Sadly, I experience this regularly from younger women in an otherwise marvelous clergy Facebook group - not directed at me personally, because they have no idea whether I'm 30 or 60, but directed at older people in general. These otherwise faithful pastors love to talk about their frustrations with "boomers", not recognizing that this was the generation whose faithful support and engagement built the very congregations paying their salaries. (*steps down from soapbox, sort of*)

The age of our two presumptive presidential candidates has once again brought the question of how old is too old, and for what, into play. How old is too old for a surgeon? A pilot? A president? A pastor? Isn't competency a better gauge of readiness than numerical age?

In the 1960's the term ageism was first coined by Dr. Robert Butler, a physician in the United States. He defined it as "a process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender." I find ageism to be curiously ironic as it's a prejudice held against something that those who hold it will likely become.

I find it particularly egregious in this season that we are asking if President Biden is too old and we are NOT asking the same question of his opponent, who is barely three years younger. Why aren't we asking about competency instead? Is a convicted felon competent to lead the United States? Is a person convicted of sexual assault competent to lead the United States? Is a person with many more indictments looming (although the highest court in the land is certainly trying to help him out of those) competent to lead the United States? Is a person unwilling to read daily national security briefings competent to serve and protect?

Aging changes us. It does. Our feet hurt (or is that just me and can you recommend good shoes?), our joints ache, we are wiser, we appreciate the day more. And in any other year, it might be a fair question to ask whether the aging process has diminished President Biden's capacity to serve. But this is not that year. This year we have to muster every ounce of resolve we have to fight for the rights and dignity of all people and for the democracy that makes this nation great.

(A necessary disclaimer: This is my personal blog and opinions contained herein are mine alone.)

Dr. Louise Aronson has a marvelous book out that I highly recommend: Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life.

Here's a link to an interview she did for CBS Sunday Morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KdnIpQCpE