America: In search of the young and the restless

THE United States is far from being the City on a Hill as envisioned by its founders: High rates of crime and homelessness; gun control laws that result in frequent (indeed a seeming endless spate of) mass shootings; growing social-economic gaps.

But one cannot take one thing from the country: It has a large number of young and talented people, including many immigrants and their children, who have become the driving force behind much of the American creative spirit seen in its world-famous scientific institutions, its dynamic commercial centres, the Wall Street and the Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Broadway.

Indeed, if you are a young person growing up anywhere in the world, chances are that you occasionally dream about the prospects that could be open to you in America, a country that perhaps may not be generous to the elderly and the poor but offers so many opportunities to the young and the restless.

Which brings us to ask the following question: Why has that spirit of youth passed over the American political world? And, more superficially, why does it look like the next US president is going to be one of two ageing white men who are more than a decade and a half beyond the average American retirement age and are stepping forward again for one of the hardest jobs in the world?

In fact, President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump are two of the three oldest men (along with Ronald Reagan) to ever serve as president, with all three holding the office in their 70s. Biden will turn 81 on Nov 20.

And, according to most opinion polls, the American people don’t want to see either Biden or Trump occupying the White House after 2024.

Much has been written about Trump, the Republican presidential front runner who isn’t qualified to be president, but not just because of his age (77). Facing 91 felony charges in four separate cases for egregious conduct before, during and after his presidency, Trump, however, still enjoys the support of his political base.

In contrast, Democratic voters seem to have more mixed feelings about their party’s front runner, President Biden, now the first octogenarian to occupy the Oval Office.

Most Democrats give high marks to Biden’s performance in office, including his efforts to revitalise the American economy post-Covid and to restore US global status with his response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine and to Hamas’ attack on Israel.

Yet a clear majority of Democratic voters also believes that Biden is too old to serve in office – a view that is shared by roughly three-quarters of all voters, half of whom think that Trump is also past his prime (among other things) for the role, according to a Monmouth University poll taken in October 2023.

Biden and Trump aren’t the only ageing leaders in the US. It’s a bipartisan trend: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, is 72, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, is 81. In the House, California Democrat and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at age 83, recently announced that she’s running for re-election for her 19th term in office.

The time has come perhaps for Americans to consider proposals to impose age limits for federal elected officials. And, more pertinently, for the two presidential front runners to drop out from the race. How about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley running against the incumbent Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris in 2024? We can dream, can’t we?