According to a new ABC News/IPSOS poll, 86% of Americans think 81-year-old Joe Biden is too old to serve another term as president, while 62% think 77-year-old Trump is also too old.
The ongoing debate regarding the impact of age on the race for U.S. President prompted me to search for a letter that my late father sent to Walter Mondale in 1984. Two years earlier, my father had decided to leave a successful business in mid-career to pursue a doctorate in gerontology, the study of aging.
The perspective that this new profession afforded my father led him to send the letter to Mr. Mondale just before the general election. My father expressed concern to Mr. Mondale, who was 56 at the time, about the Democratic Party’s blatant attempt to make the age of his 73-year-old Republican competitor, Ronald Reagan, a campaign issue. He wrote that judging older people as “incapable of participating in all areas of society is devastating to the human rights and values of our older population.”
I dug up my father’s letter recently, four decades later, as ageism again came to dominate the discussion in our presidential politics, this time with members of both parties wielding it against an incumbent president, Joe Biden — and to a lesser extent against his rival, former President Donald Trump.
The most socially condoned form of prejudice, ageism refers to the discrimination directed toward older individuals, perpetuated by negative and often inaccurate stereotypes. Ageist language and attitudes can be pervasive in everyday interactions, such as referring to older people using derogatory terms or making jokes about forgetfulness or physical frailty. Regardless, the beliefs that form the basis of age bias frequently originate from misconceptions, increasingly deliberate.
The use of the outdated term “elderly” was surely deliberate, aiming to sustain a certain narrative and generalize older Americans in broad strokes.
The exploitation of age as an issue in politics today is even more pervasive and crueler in 2024 than it was in 1984. Former Gov. Nikki Haley attributed a mistake to Mr. Trump’s age by stating, “These things happen because, guess what? When you’re 80, that’s what happens.” With some remarkable lack of self-awareness, 80-year-old Fox News analyst Brit Hume “reported” that President Joe Biden is “obviously senile,” an example of ageism that devalues the wisdom and experience that older individuals bring to the table. More recently, Special Prosecutor Robert Hur described the president in his report as an “elderly man with a poor memory.” The use of the outdated term “elderly” was surely deliberate, aiming to sustain a certain narrative and generalize older Americans in broad strokes.
Ageism can manifest in multiple forms, ranging from treating older adults as though they are invisible and expendable to entrenched biases within the workplace. Regardless of its manifestation, ageism has detrimental effects on individuals and reinforces damaging stereotypes about a minority group we all want to join.
Despite the current angst about the age of our leading presidential candidates, any number of political leaders over the years have demonstrated that with age can come wisdom. At age 70, Benjamin Franklin helped write and then signed the Declaration of Independence. After leading the young state of Israel through the Six-Day War, Golda Meir served as the country’s first prime minister until age 76. Nelson Mandela took office as the first president of a democratic South Africa at age 75.
To overcome ageism, it takes a collective effort to reshape societal attitudes, break down stereotypes, and cultivate environments that cherish the wisdom acquired through aging. We — and particularly the media — could start by resisting the temptation to lazily attribute every misstep, stumble, or lapse to the effects of old age.
Mr. Mondale did not respond to my dad’s letter, and I have no way of knowing if he ever saw it. But he would have done well to heed its advice. In the second presidential debate, President Reagan famously quipped, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Mr. Mondale could only respond by laughing.
Whether he read Dad’s letter or not, he learned its lesson that day.
Andy Frank (andy@capexadvisory.com) is principal at Cap Ex Advisory Group and a former Baltimore deputy mayor (2007-2010).
