simply quoting your comment here, not directly replying to you
@highfigh .
To be honest, when I started this thread it was a combination of age and capability behind the question. To that latter, both mental and physical concerns are seemingly relevant, though a president in a wheel chair wouldn’t concern me so much as a person that is incapable of forming a complete sentence.
FWIW,
@Swerd really helped me reformulate my thought process on this topic overall. It was never meant to be about age-ism, rather when should an elected official stop trying to hold onto office for any number of reasons.
I’m firmly in the camp that there is a point where one can be out of touch with the electorate, as well as simply not being able to withstand the rigors of the job.
Both of the leading presidential candidates right now qualify, in my book, for needing to step aside. *shrugs As with many several members of Congress, too.
Alas, the problems with whether a person can be trusted to be responsible with the power they are granted by the electorate are matched with the lack of ability of the electorate to responsibly choose better candidates. This far transcends the initial question I posed. From how we vote (focusing on major national elections rather than local, for example) to the way the parties operate their nominating process and primaries, the voting power we were supposed to have as individuals in a democratic republic have been diluted to the point of allowing all the shenanigans we seem to routinely pan as a society.
