Over three-fourths of Americans think there should be a maximum age limit for elected officials, according to a CBS News/YouGov survey.

  • UFO64@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Given we have elected officials that are literally freezing while talking to reporters and yet would probably still win election after election? I don’t think the public cares if they are competent. They just care that their party symbol is next to their name so they vote for them.

    • kava@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Will that really change if we added age limits? They’ll just pick a successor and people will mindlessly vote for the new candidate instead.

      We all know the Bidens, McConnells, Pelosi’s, etc aren’t really a single person. They have a whole team of people behind them who are making the decisions, doing the research, etc. You’re not really voting for the person as much as the administration that comes with that person.

      For example a lot of people that were part of the Obama administration are part of the Biden. The person changed but the power structure more or less remains the same.

    • Kalcifer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The question does still remain whether the public not caring about the competency level of a specific elected official is grounds to restrict their voter autonomy. An argument could certainly be made that voting in a less competent candidate could be a strategic move.

      • UFO64@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Reasonable restrictions can and should be made. You cannot elect a baby, you cannot elect a rock, you shouldn’t be electing someone who clearly isn’t medically capable of doing their job anymore.

        • Kalcifer@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I’m not overly convinced that such restrictions are truly necessary at scale. When we are dealing with “large” populations, these sorts of edge-cases begin to become extremely improbable. While they would indeed remain possible, I would argue that if they were to actually end up occurring, that would be as a symptom of a much more serious societal breakdown which would most likely indicate an imminent collapse. That being said, if there was to be some explicit restriction, I believe that it is sufficient to state that individual must be, at least, a naturalized citizen. There could also be some other clause added for the sake of ensuring that the individuals interests are in that of the nation’s – like the natural-born citizen clause in the U.S.A; however, I personally haven’t come to a decision on whether I agree with that, or not.

          • UFO64@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Plenty of things are edge cases and yet we still have laws for them.

            These people are there from institutional failure, not merit or meaningful support if their citizens.

            • Kalcifer@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              These people are there from institutional failure, not merit or meaningful support if their citizens.

              They are there because they were voted in.

                • Kalcifer@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Did you mistype something? That comment doesn’t make any sense to me. Perhaps I am simply misunderstanding how it is written. Would you mind rewording, or explaining what you mean?