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In reply to the discussion: What's with all the Ageism in These Threads?? [View all]PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,855 posts)and it's beyond obvious that Bernie Sanders has the stamina of a much younger person. Unlike, for instance, Hillary Clinton who looks more than her age and didn't really hold up all that well to campaigning last year. Elizabeth Warren, all of two years younger than Clinton, looks, speaks, and behaves like some one a decade or two younger.
But Bernie Sanders will be 79 in 2020. Elizabeth Warren 71. I would support a run on the part of Warren, but I doubt she'll make it. Too bad.
More to the point, the demands of the Presidency are a lot more than most of us experience in our daily lives. It's long been a truism that Presidents age far beyond their years while in office. As I said above, I'm 68 and I'm constantly astonished at how old my contemporaries are in their health and their behavior. I've gone to two 50th high school reunions (because I belong to two different classes, longish story, not pertinent here) and it's quite sad to see how many of my classmates are dead or don't make it to the reunion because of health issues. And the ones that do often are using canes and are clearly in the category of "elderly". And we're not quite 70 yet.
But it's more than that. It's an issue of older people getting rigid in their mindset, and stuck in the past, convinced that things were so much better in their youth. For about 25 years now I've been railing against people my age who complain bitterly about the younger generation, especially about their work ethic. I remember all too clearly when we Boomers were first entering the job market, and we were told by the adults that we were lazy and incompetent, would never amount to much, and god help this country when we took over. Now I hear the same crap said of the younger generation.
Me? I want to look to the future with that younger generation.
Just my take on this topic.