Be it enacted, that no person shall be eligible to serve in the House of Representatives, who hath not attained the age of five and twenty years, nor shall any person be elected who hath exceeded the age of seventy-five years. Likewise, no person shall be eligible to serve in the Senate who hath not attained the age of thirty years, nor be elected if they have exceeded the age of seventy-five years. Should any person attain the age of seventy-five upon their first election, they shall not be eligible for election to a second term. All elected officials must be Citizens of these United States for no less than seven years, in the case of Representatives, and nine years, in the case of Senators.
I do not believe our founding fathers knew the massive increase in life expectancy 200+ years into the future. They also did not have the understanding that age and stress massively affects the decision making of the individual.
This also allows a healthy transfer of power from an older generation who may be out of touch with the newer generation, so that a single person cannot not monopolize a seat of congress for his entire life.
I am formally calling for age limits on members of congress to be written into the constitution.
Here is a simple study citing my evidence of age, stress, and decision making.
“Chronic stress can accelerate cognitive decline, especially by impacting the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, which are crucial for memory and decision-making. Stress hormones like cortisol, when persistently elevated, lead to atrophy in these brain regions.”
(Interactive Effects of Stress and Aging on Structural Plasticity in the Prefrontal Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. Retrieved from https://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/12/3465).
This is a valid point! However, I have seen older people that were sharp as a 20 year old! Instead, I would vote to implement mandatory cognitive testing every 6 months for our public servants in government roles. Test results should be made public, unless the individual chooses to step down (if the testing produces negative findings and the person wold like to keep it private). We deserve to know if our employees who represent us have a fully functional brains!
Nope…who would conduct the testing? What test would be used? How would you weliminate bias in the test results? Also, An 85 year-old who just passed a cognitive test is much more likely to become cognitively impaired in the next year than a 55 year old. Finally, if the cognitive test applies at the older end, why not apply it at the earlier ages? Certainly you know an 18 or 20 year-old who is sharper than many of our current congressmen of any age.
I ask that you lower the age to 70, and also add a bit that makes a person inelligible to run for office if they shall turn 70 years of age at any point during their term of office. The first part is a recognition that after age 70 the likelihood of medical and cognitive issues increases dramatically. The second part ensures that folks don’t serve past 70 to complete a term, and are not removed when turning 70. There are plenty of other ways to serve in the later years without being elected.
There are, in fact, times where age is actually just a number.
Age wasn’t an issue for Ronald Reagan. Age isn’t an issue for Donald Trump. By contrast, there are people far younger than either of them that aren’t half as fit to serve.
I’m a solid ‘no’ on implementing arbitrary maximum age limits.
You should push for good old fashion terms limits instead.