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Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

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Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#891

Post by siva7 »

tiffanyh wrote: post #533

Putting politics aside … Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? E.g., you must be younger than the average life expectancy (currently men: 73yo / female: 79) - while in office. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

> Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)?

In a democracy we let the pleb decide if they want a 81 year old as president (or a 18 year old). It works as intended. Putting age limits on fixed-term elected officials would go against the spirit of free elections.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#892

Post by nwsm »

siva7 wrote: post #891
tiffanyh wrote: post #533

Putting politics aside … Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? E.g., you must be younger than the average life expectancy (currently men: 73yo / female: 79) - while in office. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

> Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? In a democracy we let the pleb decide if they want a 81 year old as president (or a 18 year old). It works as intended. Putting age limits on fixed-term elected officials would go against the spirit of free elections.

Are you implying there isn't a minimum age for president of the United States?

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#893

Post by defrost »

siva7 wrote: post #891
tiffanyh wrote: post #533

Putting politics aside … Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? E.g., you must be younger than the average life expectancy (currently men: 73yo / female: 79) - while in office. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

> Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? In a democracy we let the pleb decide if they want a 81 year old as president (or a 18 year old). It works as intended. Putting age limits on fixed-term elected officials would go against the spirit of free elections.

There's a minimum age > 30 to be POTUS.

The "pleb" had no say whatsoever in having only Trump or Biden as a choice.

Party elitists chose the horses in the race.

Further, there are many more democracies than just the USofA, rules vary and you don't see the same lack of choice in some of these other democracies.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#894

Post by throw4847285 »

consultSKI wrote: post #874
PopePompus wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians who refuse to retire is a huge, bipartisan problem in the US affecting both genders. Putting an age limit on the president or members of congress would probably have to be done via a constitutional amendment, because the Supreme Court has ruled in the past that states cannot add eligibility requirements that are not in the constitution. One reform that would help in Congress would be to modify the seniori…

Term Limits. No real math is required. Senate: 1 Term. 6 years. Not able to then serve in the House. House: 2 Terms. 4 years. Not able to then serve in the Senate. 1 Term House + 1 Term Senate. 8 years total. Elect any LEGAL Citizen regardless of age.

Term limits are actually bad for democracy. The most effective politicians are the ones who have learned how to do it over time. There's this bizarre American idea that being an elected official shouldn't be a job. It definitely should.

The problem here wouldn't even be solved by term limits, because Joe Biden has only been president for The actual, less fun solution, is for the party apparati to start elevating younger people to positions of power and influence. And that only happens if the members of that party start to demand it. It worked on Joe Biden, and he stepped aside.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#895

Post by mkoubaa »

naruhodo wrote: post #850
michelb wrote: post #846

Non-American here. Do you think will there ever be serious room for more parties in America?

Non-American answer: that will never happen unless both parties agree to switch to ranked-choice single-transferrable-vote. So no, never.

The parties don't have to agree. The states set the voting rules and can do so by referenda

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#896

Post by snapcaster »

apexalpha wrote: post #61

From Europe, so not as much skin in the game as others here. But jeez the Democratic party needs to new leadership. And I don't mean Harris or whoever, but the party leadership itself. The gaslighting in the past year about Bidens age was insane to watch. Literally asking people to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.

Agreed, it's been obvious for the last year to everyone in my bubble (educated liberals mostly in tech) that Biden was demented. The democratic party is now holding every non-conservative american hostage more or less (what are you gonna do? vote trump?) and I would love to see the party collapse or have a serious overhaul. Why can't they put up candidates people like? At least trump has actual fans, I don't know anyone who actually likes Biden they just prefer him to trump

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#897

Post by throw4847285 »

standardUser wrote: post #644
lisper wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airline pilots have a legally mandated retirement age of 65. Running the country seems like it's at least as mission-critical as flying a plane.

Political jobs require few if any fine motor skills. Why, we once even had a paraplegic president during wartime!

Ironically, FDR pulled a Biden but succeeded. By early 1944 he was already dying of cancer and hid it, as he hid his disability. He made it through the election, and then died a few months after his inauguration leaving Truman in charge. Of course, FDR was more popular than Biden, but I do believe it was his closest election.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#898

Post by lr1970 »

tiffanyh wrote: post #533

Putting politics aside … Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? E.g., you must be younger than the average life expectancy (currently men: 73yo / female: 79) - while in office. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

> Why don’t they have an age limit on the president

In fact there is an age limit for an American president. They should be >= 35 y.o. We need to augment it with an upper limit. My choice would be <= 75 y.o.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#899

Post by snapcaster »

SonOfKyuss wrote: post #147
apexalpha wrote: post #61

From Europe, so not as much skin in the game as others here. But jeez the Democratic party needs to new leadership. And I don't mean Harris or whoever, but the party leadership itself. The gaslighting in the past year about Bidens age was insane to watch. Literally asking people to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.

> Literally asking people to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears I mean, it seems to be a winning strategy for the other party.

Disagree, I think everyone has more or less the same (accurate) view of trump it's just the things that his supporters like about him are the same things that make you hate him

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#900

Post by me_me_me »

DemocracyFTW2 wrote: post #778
JoshTriplett wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a better voting system (e.g. Approval or Condorcet) and nothing preventing a dozen candidates from running, that would be much more feasible. These go hand in hand: our current voting system breaks down if multiple candidates draw votes from each other, but a better voting system would be immune to that failure mode and could give people a free choice of several reasonable candidates without having some of them…

my thinking exactly why is it that there are not the best 5, 50 or 500 people on the ballot and I as a voter can mark any and all that I think I know will do the job the way I want them to

cannot be done, only two candidates allowed.

Pleas do not google preferential voting, no country has ever implemented it. Definitely not Ireland.

The current system is the best thing in the world.

On serious note.

This will never be allowed in US as the whole 3rd candidate is wasted vote argument goes away. And suddenly there is a crack in the door for a other candidate to win.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government-in-ireland/...

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