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  • buttnugget@lemmy.worldtoPolitical Memes@lemmy.worldyeah
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    2 days ago

    First of all, I appreciate you ignoring my obviously stupid facetious insult. So I will give you a straight response in return.

    Age does not matter in this case whatsoever. If you want to make an argument for health or mental acuity or something, I think that’s reasonable. I have no problem with the criticism of staying in office while old age deteriorates you, but plenty of people remain sharp well into their 90s and even 100s.

    If you want to make the argument that we need to make more room for younger folks, I agree with that. I think we need to fix employment in general when it comes to age related discrimination, which applies to young and old alike. A formal system of apprenticeship and training in all fields is warranted, I think, and something similar can work in politics—but it is not a true vocation.

    The whole workaholic culture you’re talking about doesn’t really apply to politics. It’s simply not the same as in other professions. These folks aren’t fetishizing work, they’re doing public service, and I mean as a concept; obviously right wingers aren’t doing any kind of “public service” by any reasonable definition.

    Preventing people from taking office at 60 years old just because they might run for a different office later is authoritarian lunacy. This is truly ageist nonsense. The only thing that should matter is an ability to faithfully execute the duties of the office. If they are enfeebled, they need to retire. None of this Diane Feinstein nonsense where her staff was operating in her stead.

    One of the things to keep in mind is that there’s a reason people have a “second life” as a politician. Sometimes as you get older, you gain a sense of duty to the community that raised you; sometimes it’s naked ambition. I’m not trying to make it sound noble, just that it’s not a career as such, and there’s a reason people come to politics late and stay late. I don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s part of an obsessive focus on identity. Nobody cares about Bernie Sanders because he’s a decent person.