Youth-ism: Prejudice Against Those Younger than 50 years old, for POTUS
Dec 6th, 2011 | 19 responses
All the most media exposed candidates for GOP POTUS are over age 50, some like Newt, only a couple years shy of 70 years of age. Only 11 out of 44 Presidents have been under age 50, tilted strongly toward the aging and the elderly.
There’s a saying that old dogs in fading power try to diminish and hold power away from the strongest of the dogs… which are not the elderly, rather the young who are filled with new ideas and insights not clouded by cronyism and comforts.
THis is an old Story. In Greek mythos, Chronos, the old chief god, tried to keep his vibrant and young sons [and daughters] from remaining alive long enough to ever succeed him in office–. He prevented them from replacing himself by killing them… by literally eating them alive. Ripping off their heads, the source of new ideas. Swallowing their bones, bones being symbolic of ideas that endure even in/ under fire.
Does this sound familiar in politics? Whether a dictatorship, or just a bunch of old guys who want the young around only to fan them and peel grapes for them. But otherwise castrate any young person wanting to forge ahead of the old guys.
In the Greek myth, Rhea, next mother of the earth, gave birth to Zeus, and tired of having Chronos eat all her children, wrapped a stone in a blanket and gave that to Chronos, which he promptly swallowed whole without realizing it left one child, one young one, to eventually overwhelm Chronos. Rhea hid Zeus and raised him outside his mad father’s sight.
Eventually Zeus has a huge battle in the sky with his father, and castrates Chronos in a sense, by cutting his belly open and all Zeus’s brothers and sisters are released back to life, Poseiden, Hades, Demeter and others of Olympian, Sea and Underworld realms. Chronos dies and Zeus comes into power.
Whether Herod The Great who ordered the slaughter of innocents during the time of Christ’s birth, save one, for Herod feared the ‘new king’ he’d heard rumors about would depose him, or the ancient Chronos who slaughtered all his children, save one, for he feared his throne being taken from him… or popular politics…
what does it take to wrest power from the old who squat over it and let no one younger near?
According to the old stories it takes telling truth to lies, it takes sequestering the best away from the greedy devouring fathers, it takes a battle in full view, it takes pushing back against ‘one’s own party’ … it takes killing off the greedy king who wont retire gracefully nor let others take the reins now.
I see this pushback in Karl Rove’s words over the last year in his sharp criticism of some of his own party. I see it in some of George Will’s words. If William F still lived, I’ve no doubt he would join in.
Thomas Paine who was a USA Founding father, a pushback kind of guy, pamphleteer and author
said it well:
“There never did, there never will, and there never can exist a parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the `end of time,’ or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it. … Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it.
To my mind, this is one of the troubling matters in the current races GOP, DNC, doesnt matter– that the fresh ideas arent coming from the old, they’re carried by those far younger… who the old do not lift up, but live off the energy of the young, but allow them no real power.
The fight in the sky, in full view, is apparently long overdue in order to push the old ‘cemented to their thrones,’ off center stage. Let the young come forward from hiding now. Let the old go rest on their laurels, whatever they are or are not.
# Age at Inauguration
1 George Washington 57 years, 67 days
2 John Adams 61 years, 125 days
3 Thomas Jefferson 57 years, 325 days
4 James Madison 57 years, 353 days
5 James Monroe 58 years, 310 days
6 John Quincy Adams 57 years, 236 days
7 Andrew Jackson 61 years, 354 days
8 Martin Van Buren 54 years, 89 days
9 William Henry Harrison 68 years, 23 days
10 John Tyler 51 years, 6 days
11 James K. Polk 49 years, 122 days
12 Zachary Taylor 64 years, 100 days
13 Millard Fillmore 50 years, 183 days
14 Franklin Pierce 48 years, 101 days
15 James Buchanan 65 years, 315 days
16 Abraham Lincoln 52 years, 20 days
17 Andrew Johnson 56 years, 107 days
18 Ulysses S. Grant 46 years, 311 days
19 Rutherford B. Hayes 54 years, 151 days
20 James A. Garfield 49 years, 105 days
21 Chester A. Arthur 51 years, 349 days
22 Grover Cleveland 47 years, 351 days
23 Benjamin Harrison 55 years, 196 days
24 Grover Cleveland 55 years, 351 days
25 William McKinley 54 years, 34 days
26 Theodore Roosevelt 42 years, 322 days
27 William Howard Taft 51 years, 170 days
28 Woodrow Wilson 56 years, 66 days
29 Warren G. Harding 55 years, 122 days
30 Calvin Coolidge 51 years, 29 days
31 Herbert Hoover 54 years, 206 days
32 Franklin D. Roosevelt 51 years, 33 days
33 Harry S. Truman 60 years, 339 days
34 Dwight D. Eisenhower 62 years, 98 days
35 John F. Kennedy 43 years, 236 days
36 Lyndon B. Johnson 55 years, 87 days
37 Richard Nixon 56 years, 11 days
38 Gerald Ford 61 years, 26 days
39 Jimmy Carter 52 years, 111 days
40 Ronald Reagan 69 years, 349 days
41 George H. W. Bush 64 years, 222 days
42 Bill Clinton 46 years, 154 days
43 George W. Bush 54 years, 198 days
44 Barack Obama 47 years, 169 days
19 Responses to “Youth-ism: Prejudice Against Those Younger than 50 years old, for POTUS”
Yeah but….the young GOP’ers are crazy. They want to kill grandma.
…and on the DNC side, age certainly leaves out Hillary.
Bob Dole is not to old to be President, but His Ideas are.
Bill Clinton, 1996
Geeze.. no wonder there’s so much fossilized thinking goin on! Add me to the list of people who’d like to see a lot more young blood in govt. Looks like Teddy Roosevelt and JFK were the greatest anomalies, at 42 and 43. Hmmm…
Great post Dr E. Thanks for the Greek mythology too.
This is every day life. This is particularly a massive problem in academia.
In the wild, there are no social structures keeping the elderly in authority. Either you beat your young combatant or you don’t. Throughout time, we have created many different social structures that allow people to stay in authority much longer than they should. I know of an 80 year old retired surgeon that still forces the current head of surgery to sit in a different office when the old man wants to visit his throne.
thanks for mentioning the 80 year old retired surgeon… that’s a good example. There’s an old fairytale told in our family Shannonlee, about the captain of a ghost ship whose beard has grown so long, its grown into the planks of his ship and he cannot leave the captain’s chair on deck for he is held fast by his ‘dead beard’… his ship just keeps riding the waves without intention. Something like that you are telling me. Hopefully the current head of surgery has humor and patience, both.
how old is bob dole Allen, I wonder. Liddy too, I wonder, I think they must be in their 80s, no?
jspencer, I agree, I wondered about that too, Roosevelt and Kennedy. Very interesting to think of those two sitting down to talk in heaven. Roosevelt was anti-immigrant so probably would fit right into some circles today. But he also seemed a visionary. I imagine Joe Kennedy would get along right well with HW Bush for instance, both fathers who really pushed, I think, their sons. It’s funny, I always thought of G. Bush as much younger than 64 when he took office. Like 20 years younger. His enthusiasm and sort of penchant for dress-up perhaps made me think he hadnt quite mastered dignity that one would find in people perhaps past sixty or so? There’s a saying in the priesthood, that just because a man becomes a priest doesnt mean he is priestly. It takes some years for the sacred quality of intention and action to wash over him. Seems like same with some of our presidents too. And thanks Jspencer for noting the Greek mythos. One of my favorite interests, how the ancients seem somehow so bumbling, fumbling about… like us. lol
What a nonsense article. Older people can be visionary, too.
The problem Isn’t age, it’s ideological entrenchment, either by one’s own choice, upbringing or education; or because of fear of change; or because others are really holding the reins and they’re afraid of change.
Thanks Barky, and of course people of all ages can be visionary. This article is pointing out that people running for POTUS…seem often an entrenched lot every election cycle, often act as though they’re dynasty-entitled, and often at same time are of advanced age. Testifying before legislatures for decades now, I see many of the old guard attempting to hold on to their power, while beating the living daylights out of, in public or behind closed doors in their cronies’ club, the vibrant young who are often their own supposed compatriots. In my experience, dynastic politics played by those who are aged, is more ‘nasty’ than it will ever be fresh, useful and dynamic. There are exceptions, but they are few. Very few.
Dr E-
Mankind having populated the western hemisphere merely twenty thousand years ago, I think Bob was among them. Not so old. I think Liddy and Bob met on the crossing. Oh no that was his first wife. nevermind.
Dr. E., then your article should have pointed out your beef with establishmentarianism. Instead it comes across as an ageist, prejudicial rant.
We are currently living in an economy that is abandoning it’s older workers. I am in my mid 40′s. If I was laid off, it would be twice as hard for me to find a new job than someone in their 30′s. For someone in their 50′s, it’s three times as hard. We’re also treating our elderly worse & worse and are even trying to cut their support systems even more!
And then you come along saying “old people shouldn’t be President”, and then provide a list of Presidents as supposed “proof” of your point, and if you look at the list, only a handful would be considered over the retirement age today!
Frankly, your article really pisses me off.
Dr E-
Might I remind you that the GOP “new guard” is the Tea Party. Frankly, they scare the hell our of me.
Barky, do you dispute that people of a certain age are the ones who have the most power in the world? To the extent that youth equates more to idealism and fresh ideas and age more to cynicism and protecting an obsolete status quo, I salute the cause of more young people in positions of power. As it is, they aren’t well represented at all. This has nothing to do with ageism btw, and I’m not sure why you are so bent about this.
Barky, I’m 25 years older than you. I know ageism straight up. No hash.
Sorry you’re pissed off, as you put it. My intent was not what you read into my article. But, that’s ok.
My partially disabled vet hubby and I belong to several groups that push back against institutionalized exploitation of the young and the chronic devaluation and sideswiping of the elderly.
Pretty sure others who are motivated could find a group of their choice to be a part of too. I hope all will. As JSpencer points out, it’s an exploitative issue of many of those in power, strong arming aside the young. As you note, I am not talking about old people, I am talking about people in huge power who are protectionists toward themselves and their friends and their own zeitgeist, to the exclusion of the young brilliant souls who could definitively lead, but are sequestered in more ways than one. It is shameful. Seriously shameful.
Allen, that was funny. You have a knack for saying absurdist things that make us laugh. Thanks for that. Much needed in our time along with reasoned ideas that are workable for the people.
Jspencer, the conversation veering a bit, I was remembering too as I think of ‘the young’ in political parties, I think of someone like Romanoff [sp]–Andrew,– who is a brilliant mind and heart, served at state legislature for many years, but was literally run into the paint by Obama visiting CO and endorsing Michael Bennet, his friend for fed senator. Bennet had NO experience as a legislator, was appointed by our then gov who was Bennet’s friend. Bennet was a pretty boy appointed school superintendent. Now senator do-nothing. The well healed older guy and his many older croneys had it over Romanof not in substance, but in money and more money and more money. That’s another aspect of the senex suppressing the younger minds, the old fat cats have a lot of money and a lot of friends who have a lot of money… whilst the young often have friends still paying off their student loans, trying to raisse young family, et al. I think for me JSpencer, it is no longer true that Honest Abe could be elected today re the money foisted upon us all as some flatulent sign of ‘worth’ of the candidate. That too, is a shameful turn away from honest elections.
Amen Sister E! Money is not a sign of ‘worth’ (contrary to a certain popular fascination). It is only a sign of money. And yes, “shameful” IS the right word. As Hart always says, “Courage”!
I as usual am the last to answer your post DR E. The reason is that everytime I click to read any posts here, I get this stupid add pop up with the http://c5.zedco.co and it makes me mad because its all about an advertisement that adds up after awhile to many of this same cookie? is there some way I can block this add to keep it from using up my time to cleanout? Any how just wanted to say in regards to the post on older presidents verses younger ones, I remember an elderly gentleman once remarked to me something about the age of presidents.
He said “you know there are now so many presidents..still alive, that it must be getting to be an awful burden on society to support them once they leave the whitehouse, with a more high cost of living because they have to have all that security for the rest of their lives, protecting them, following their every move, and secret agents because of what they knew while in the white house as our cammander-in-chief and a living a caliber above everyone else..
Just thought I.d give my two cents worth that is infact something to ponder… when you think about it about the age factor..
Intersting comment Ras. Btw, I get the same c5.zedo.com. popups (endlessly) on TMV too. I don’t get them on any other site. Extremely annoying..
Dear Ras and JSpencer, write to tyrone and ask him what the heck is going on. I dont get pop ups very often and not at TMV, but I’m using safari and it has a popup blocker that seems to work most of the time.
you can also write me at projectscreener@aol.com and I can send an email to tyrone on your behalf. Let’s see if we can solve this.
I especially loathe popups that start talking at me in a loud annoying voice. I swear, ad people dont realize i will never buy their whatever if they freak me out, startle me, or aggravate the cat. lol I hope you are laughing with me. Write if I can help you.