Because both of the last presidents were/are above-average in age and this is who the parties chose. There were younger people running against Trump--they didn't do very well. There were many younger people running against Biden 4 years ago. Democratic party and its voters chose Biden, and have chosen to stay with him because the historical trends say it's much easier to keep the Presidency when the current President is running than it is to win the Presidency with somebody else. Recent past presidents have been younger, with only Reagan being near the age of these two.
In the US, candidates are chosen by primaries. In 2016, Republican voters decided that Donald Trump was their best candidate, which has been affirmed in 2024. In 2020, Biden was voted to be the best Democratic candidate. If you don’t like those options, vote in your local primary
With both our candidates so old already and both reported having trouble controlling bodily functions, I can tell you already exactly what's gonna happen now.
Depends.
Because young people don't vote in non-presidential elections and in local races.
That young progressive running for city comptroller, county commissioner, or school superintendent could be a president some day, but how many 19-year-olds are getting to the ballot box to elevate them in a non presidential election year? Then the presidential election rolls around and they're shocked to find that the candidates aren't young progressives.
Big part of that is candidates not spreading awareness about the election itself. For those that dont actively involve themselves in politics, voting day can come and go without them even knowing.
It’s not that young people don’t know that there are elections and that they live in a representative democracy. It’s just that they generally don’t give a fuck like older people do
Because that's who the majority of each party voted for to be their candidate in the primaries. In some states even non member ordinary citizens voted for them.
It might make more sense to you if you check the average age in the USA.
OP, would you ask this question if it were about race?
Racism, Sexism, Ageism…prejudice is prejudice. Pre-judging.
I know this question is popular on Reddit, but Biden has been doing the job for over 3 years now. In my opinion, he has done a much better job than Trump ever could. You just don’t like him because he’s old? How is that different from the millions of Americans who didn’t like Obama because he was half black?
“buT wHaT iF tHis QuEsTiOn WeRe AbOuT rAcE??”
Completely irrelevant cause it’s not. Would you ask this if Biden was a woman? Or gay? Or a cat? Those are completely different things that often just have hate or fear supporting those prejudices. Are most black people violent criminals? Are most women completely incompetent? Are most gays pedophiles? Are most cats humans?
No. But most people’s mental and physical functions do begin to deteriorate when they’re real old. That’s not an irrational fear backed by lies and hate, that’s just everyday truth. It is pretty stupid to not want a black, gay, or female President just because they are black, gay, or female. It’s not stupid to not want a very old person running for President, it’s an extremely high stress position. Yeah, Biden’s done ok during his time, but it’s not like he blew everyone away with how spectacular of a President he is. Yeah, he’s better than trump, but that’s a pretty low bar. Is he (or trump) going to still be just ok in the next 4.5 years?
They’ve both displayed their minds and bodies are not quite up to snuff, and that definitely isn’t going to get better as the get older. Will it be blatantly worse? Who knows, but just the fact that they’re both at ages where it could be is not attractive to voters.
Just because Biden didn’t completely shit the bed because of his age doesn’t mean he’s a great candidate to do another four years. Biden is 81 years old. A large amount of Americans that age are in nursing homes, if not already dead. He did alright as a president, but I bet he would’ve done a hell of a lot better if he was thirty years younger.
Not wanting an old ass President is t ageism. It isn’t equivalent to racism, sexism, homophobia, etc like you’re trying to make it out to be. Americans have seen the decreasing mental acuity of Biden and trump, as well as the extremely embarrassing mental state of other politicians such as Mitch McConnell and Diane Feinstein.
It’s not rational to be concerned about having a non-white, female, or homosexual President. It is rational to be concerned about a man who will begin his next four year term as the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world, at 82 years old.
"Just because he's old" is horribly misrepresenting it.
Biden isn't "just old" he's older than people who's voting for him's great grandparents. Dude is so old he's just about as old as WW2. He was in his 60s when we invaded Iraq. Like he's ***ancient***
He'll be the oldest president we've **ever had**. It's not just "he's old" it's "I don't believe someone that old can truly represent me in the way that someone much younger could"
Obama looked young and spry when he first took office, and by the time he left dude was beginning to look like my grandpa. Joe Biden is 81 (was 77 when he took office) asking for the full 8, I'm fearful that either A) The stress of the job will only hasten the damages of aging and/or B) He just keels over in office. I don't have to worry about either of those things when it comes to race or age.
None of those things above are guarantees but age isn't just a number here and we're talking about one of the most stressful jobs in the entire world ever.
People don’t want to give up power/money, so they usually hang onto it until they die. There are other factors like being more experienced, having built more connections, or even being easier to control by the party.
We have allowed ourselves to become convinced that our votes don’t matter because of the electoral college and we stupidly don’t turn out to vote in local elections. That means the power to put people in office lies with the political parties and their major financial backers, instead of with the people, where it belongs. And there is no quick fix. Only decades of massive voter turnout in all elections through the country will shift the balance of political power.
Because being president is a shitty job and nobody qualified would want to do it.
* You can make a lot more in private industry
* You don't get an anal probe into yours and your families background
* You don't have to take 2-3 years out of your life to campaign and ass kiss to maybe get the shitty job
* The job ages you about 10 times the normal rate (look at pictures of Barack Obama pre and post term)
* It is a 24x7x365 job
* Most of your choices are between shitty options
* Your family and especially your kids get drug through the mud.
Because it's the old guard nominating more of themselves. We've currently got a choice between an octogenarian and a 34-count felon because that's the choice congress wants us to have. You wanna fix that, its gonna take congresspeople beimg limited to 6 years.
Wouldn't that be the life to have term limits for congress. Although you know they would use that to their advantage to ram through everything they could to enrich themselves right away instead of the long slow burn of enriching over 20+ years.
The democratic party was always going to stand behind Joe biden even though he shows very clear cognitive decline and is too old to be doing anything let alone running the country. The dems have sabotaged everything and everyone else to protect joe biden and his neoliberalism.
The republican party has no plan nor vision outside of donald trump, despite him also being too old and being a felon he is the face of the GOP for decades to come and has defined their party. Therefore he is going to run.
Why are our presidential candidates so old? Old people within the US refuse to retire, don't want their kids to own anything, and don't trust anyone younger to make their own decisions. They have enacted systemic policies in multiple sectors showing this for decades now.
We got 2 parties here. Members of those parties vote for who they are told to vote for. Not by law, it just makes you a Democrat or republican to behave that way.
Republicans were told to vote for Trump in the primary election. Biden was already the president. That's how they were nominated.
One symptom of a declining empire is geriatric leaders. Basically, internal fighting leads to waring factions "compromising" on perceived weak elderly leaders. No one gets what they want, but the "others" don't get their radical and capable leader either, so it kicks the can down the road (in terms of setting the future path of the empire.)
Ottomans, Romans, arabian, etc... Usually its just one symptom, so while the USSR, sparta, mongols, and many others would also fall into this category, we dont think of them as falling *because* they switched to undead leadership, but you can see it was present near the end for them.
Because you can’t just add in another candidate due to the way majority rules aka first past the post voting works. And the general populace doesn’t really get to decide who the candidates are anyway — the parties do. Because it’s not an official part of the election process iirc.
There are no choices in politics in the United States.
It’s a pile of blue shit, or red shit.
But it’s all shit.
And those individual pieces of shit in the parties are simply covered in the billionaire shit from the billionaire asses they kiss on their way to becoming our “representatives”…
Because both of the last presidents were/are above-average in age and this is who the parties chose. There were younger people running against Trump--they didn't do very well. There were many younger people running against Biden 4 years ago. Democratic party and its voters chose Biden, and have chosen to stay with him because the historical trends say it's much easier to keep the Presidency when the current President is running than it is to win the Presidency with somebody else. Recent past presidents have been younger, with only Reagan being near the age of these two.
In the US, candidates are chosen by primaries. In 2016, Republican voters decided that Donald Trump was their best candidate, which has been affirmed in 2024. In 2020, Biden was voted to be the best Democratic candidate. If you don’t like those options, vote in your local primary
With both our candidates so old already and both reported having trouble controlling bodily functions, I can tell you already exactly what's gonna happen now. Depends.
Because young people don't vote in non-presidential elections and in local races. That young progressive running for city comptroller, county commissioner, or school superintendent could be a president some day, but how many 19-year-olds are getting to the ballot box to elevate them in a non presidential election year? Then the presidential election rolls around and they're shocked to find that the candidates aren't young progressives.
Big part of that is candidates not spreading awareness about the election itself. For those that dont actively involve themselves in politics, voting day can come and go without them even knowing.
It’s not that young people don’t know that there are elections and that they live in a representative democracy. It’s just that they generally don’t give a fuck like older people do
Because that's who the majority of each party voted for to be their candidate in the primaries. In some states even non member ordinary citizens voted for them. It might make more sense to you if you check the average age in the USA.
OP, would you ask this question if it were about race? Racism, Sexism, Ageism…prejudice is prejudice. Pre-judging. I know this question is popular on Reddit, but Biden has been doing the job for over 3 years now. In my opinion, he has done a much better job than Trump ever could. You just don’t like him because he’s old? How is that different from the millions of Americans who didn’t like Obama because he was half black?
“buT wHaT iF tHis QuEsTiOn WeRe AbOuT rAcE??” Completely irrelevant cause it’s not. Would you ask this if Biden was a woman? Or gay? Or a cat? Those are completely different things that often just have hate or fear supporting those prejudices. Are most black people violent criminals? Are most women completely incompetent? Are most gays pedophiles? Are most cats humans? No. But most people’s mental and physical functions do begin to deteriorate when they’re real old. That’s not an irrational fear backed by lies and hate, that’s just everyday truth. It is pretty stupid to not want a black, gay, or female President just because they are black, gay, or female. It’s not stupid to not want a very old person running for President, it’s an extremely high stress position. Yeah, Biden’s done ok during his time, but it’s not like he blew everyone away with how spectacular of a President he is. Yeah, he’s better than trump, but that’s a pretty low bar. Is he (or trump) going to still be just ok in the next 4.5 years? They’ve both displayed their minds and bodies are not quite up to snuff, and that definitely isn’t going to get better as the get older. Will it be blatantly worse? Who knows, but just the fact that they’re both at ages where it could be is not attractive to voters. Just because Biden didn’t completely shit the bed because of his age doesn’t mean he’s a great candidate to do another four years. Biden is 81 years old. A large amount of Americans that age are in nursing homes, if not already dead. He did alright as a president, but I bet he would’ve done a hell of a lot better if he was thirty years younger. Not wanting an old ass President is t ageism. It isn’t equivalent to racism, sexism, homophobia, etc like you’re trying to make it out to be. Americans have seen the decreasing mental acuity of Biden and trump, as well as the extremely embarrassing mental state of other politicians such as Mitch McConnell and Diane Feinstein. It’s not rational to be concerned about having a non-white, female, or homosexual President. It is rational to be concerned about a man who will begin his next four year term as the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world, at 82 years old.
"Just because he's old" is horribly misrepresenting it. Biden isn't "just old" he's older than people who's voting for him's great grandparents. Dude is so old he's just about as old as WW2. He was in his 60s when we invaded Iraq. Like he's ***ancient*** He'll be the oldest president we've **ever had**. It's not just "he's old" it's "I don't believe someone that old can truly represent me in the way that someone much younger could" Obama looked young and spry when he first took office, and by the time he left dude was beginning to look like my grandpa. Joe Biden is 81 (was 77 when he took office) asking for the full 8, I'm fearful that either A) The stress of the job will only hasten the damages of aging and/or B) He just keels over in office. I don't have to worry about either of those things when it comes to race or age. None of those things above are guarantees but age isn't just a number here and we're talking about one of the most stressful jobs in the entire world ever.
People don’t want to give up power/money, so they usually hang onto it until they die. There are other factors like being more experienced, having built more connections, or even being easier to control by the party.
We have allowed ourselves to become convinced that our votes don’t matter because of the electoral college and we stupidly don’t turn out to vote in local elections. That means the power to put people in office lies with the political parties and their major financial backers, instead of with the people, where it belongs. And there is no quick fix. Only decades of massive voter turnout in all elections through the country will shift the balance of political power.
Because the elderly vote in droves and prefer candidates that represent them.
Gen X is a garbage generation. Boomers are too old, Millennials too young, we’re just stuck between them right now.
Because being president is a shitty job and nobody qualified would want to do it. * You can make a lot more in private industry * You don't get an anal probe into yours and your families background * You don't have to take 2-3 years out of your life to campaign and ass kiss to maybe get the shitty job * The job ages you about 10 times the normal rate (look at pictures of Barack Obama pre and post term) * It is a 24x7x365 job * Most of your choices are between shitty options * Your family and especially your kids get drug through the mud.
Because it's the old guard nominating more of themselves. We've currently got a choice between an octogenarian and a 34-count felon because that's the choice congress wants us to have. You wanna fix that, its gonna take congresspeople beimg limited to 6 years.
Wouldn't that be the life to have term limits for congress. Although you know they would use that to their advantage to ram through everything they could to enrich themselves right away instead of the long slow burn of enriching over 20+ years.
Better than sleeping through confirmation hearings and going on weeks long recess while the country burns around them.
The democratic party was always going to stand behind Joe biden even though he shows very clear cognitive decline and is too old to be doing anything let alone running the country. The dems have sabotaged everything and everyone else to protect joe biden and his neoliberalism. The republican party has no plan nor vision outside of donald trump, despite him also being too old and being a felon he is the face of the GOP for decades to come and has defined their party. Therefore he is going to run. Why are our presidential candidates so old? Old people within the US refuse to retire, don't want their kids to own anything, and don't trust anyone younger to make their own decisions. They have enacted systemic policies in multiple sectors showing this for decades now.
We got 2 parties here. Members of those parties vote for who they are told to vote for. Not by law, it just makes you a Democrat or republican to behave that way. Republicans were told to vote for Trump in the primary election. Biden was already the president. That's how they were nominated.
One symptom of a declining empire is geriatric leaders. Basically, internal fighting leads to waring factions "compromising" on perceived weak elderly leaders. No one gets what they want, but the "others" don't get their radical and capable leader either, so it kicks the can down the road (in terms of setting the future path of the empire.) Ottomans, Romans, arabian, etc... Usually its just one symptom, so while the USSR, sparta, mongols, and many others would also fall into this category, we dont think of them as falling *because* they switched to undead leadership, but you can see it was present near the end for them.
Because you can’t just add in another candidate due to the way majority rules aka first past the post voting works. And the general populace doesn’t really get to decide who the candidates are anyway — the parties do. Because it’s not an official part of the election process iirc.
There are no choices in politics in the United States. It’s a pile of blue shit, or red shit. But it’s all shit. And those individual pieces of shit in the parties are simply covered in the billionaire shit from the billionaire asses they kiss on their way to becoming our “representatives”…
2 party system: You’re choices are very limited.