Gary Franks: The 'old guys' Trump, Biden aren't what America needs

Nearly 80% of Americans in an October Pew Research poll said they want age limits for the president of the United States. It would seem the age of 80 is the cut-off point. I thought that in a democracy the majority rules. Guess I was wrong.

Does anyone know an 80-year-old who is not overly stubborn, slow to react and cranky? If so, maybe you are the 80-year-old who doesn’t share that fate. But the overwhelming majority of Americans would concede this to be true. These are not the best attributes for a world leader.

Everyone would agree that those fortunate enough to reach 80 are no longer in their prime. And can someone tell me why 20% of Americans prefer to be led by a leader beyond his prime in our very precarious world filled with adversaries?

Yes, everyone thought Dwight Eisenhower was old, a mere babe to Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. (Biden would be 85 at the end of a second term and Trump would be 80 midway through his second term in office.) And yes, there were cries that Ronald Reagan was too old.

I don’t think our Founding Fathers ever thought the American people would elect as president folks in their 80s. I also don’t believe they thought Americans would want 80-year-olds in Congress, the Supreme Court or in any other capacity in the federal government.

We should want those running our country to be on top of their game, in their prime. It is unwise to elect a president on the decline.

Well, you say, we have elections. The people can vote members of Congress out of office. That is laughable. More members of Congress over 80 have died in office than those in their 80s who have been defeated while in office.

Some have suggested that we require a cognitive test of our politicians. If they can pass it, they should be able to continue in office. I disagree.

Age is a funny thing. You are good until you are not. You can be the picture of health one day and dead the next. You can pass a cognitive test one day and struggle to remember what you ate for breakfast the next. As you get older, there is an increased likelihood that things could go bad.

But what the “old folks” have in their favor are the rules they helped to establish. They know politics. They can control the election primary process. They can determine who is in control of their political party. They can raise the most money. The scale of politics tilts toward the old guys.

They have done the job, so we figure they know how to do the job.

What would explain the establishment and media’s adamant intent to apparently force a Joe Biden-Donald Trump rematch on us?

Maybe it is all about risk. For many, we took a risk in hiring the Black guy (President Barack Obama). We took a risk in hiring the guy with zero prior experience (Donald Trump). This time the establishment and media seem to be reluctant to take another risk. Yet the American people want anything other than the choices being put forward by their respective parties.

In the 2016 election, Trump beat a highly qualified woman in Hillary Clinton. Electing a woman would have been a risk for many. The nation was willing to go with a man who had never been elected to anything and had not served in the military — this had never been done before. Voters were willing to do it instead of throwing their support behind Clinton.

Now our new “normal” is a guy who has served as POTUS? It seems like the establishment is tired of risk, tired of new things.

Term limits are not a panacea, either. The power of unelected staffers would increase if we booted out folks who had started early in politics and had to be shown the door early. These elected officials could be in their prime. They could actually be in their 40s, 50s or 60s. They could be many years or even decades removed from the true problematic ones — the folks in their 80s.

Unelected and unknown bureaucrats would rule America. Not good. They would have zero accountability. That would take us from the pot into the fire.

The following are the advantages for these two old guys:

• Trump-Biden are better at getting the nomination for president because they have done it before.

• Trump-Biden are more skilled in getting a lot of votes from their respective bases since they set records for vote-getting in the past.

• Trump-Biden can count on the unabashed support of the media. Or, in the case of Trump, he can soak up all the media attention in the room.

The media seem to ignore these facts: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley crushes Biden by up to 18 points in head-to-head polls; over 70% of voters do not want a Biden-Trump rematch; and, as already mentioned, nearly 80% of Americans do not want an 80-year-old president.

The American people should get what they want.

Unfortunately, the old folks, the establishment, the 1% who financially support each party and the media all have their thumbs on the scale.

When the will of the powerful prevails over the overwhelmingly held opinions of the general public, we face a clear and present danger to our democracy.