Never Mind Term Limits,

How About Age Limits?

XXVIII – Section 1. No citizen of 70 years of age or older shall be eligible for election to the Congress of The United States.

Section 2. No citizen of 70 years of age or older shall be eligible to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Section 3. No citizen otherwise eligible to serve as President or Vice President of the United States shall stand for election or re-election to those offices after having attained the age of 70 years.

There are 27 existing amendments to the Constitution of the United States, but the time for the 28th has come, since a look at Congress, especially the Senate, shows a long roll call of those whose time has come and gone.

The Supreme Court’s in the same fix, And while President Obama is 47, a President McCain would be 72 with a nervous nation watching him for another sign of the same lapse that gave it Vice President You Betcha.

Political correctness aside, the framers of the constitution were concerned with the effects of age and experience on intellect, which is why they set minimum ages of 25 to become a member of the House, 30 to be a member of the Senate and 35 to be President of the United States. Clearly, they recognized that experience brings wisdom.

But there’s another side to those age selections. The men who established those rules lived in a world where the average life expectancy was 40 years. Those age targets may have been selected both to insure wisdom and guard against staying long past peak. When the constitution was written, death was a great protection against entrenched and clueless power.

True, those of greater wealth tended to live longer even then. Although George Washington died at 67, the next two presidents, Adams and Jefferson, lived to be 90 and 83, but the government they and others designed was to be representative of the people. Washington lived 50 percent longer than the average for his time and both Adams and Jefferson lived almost twice the average – wonderful, but hardly representative.

No more.

Of the 100 members of the Senate, 23 are 70 or older as of June 30, making for 23 percent. By this time next year, if no Senator dies or otherwise leaves, the number becomes 27 percent, and in two more, it jumps to 39 percent.

So in just three years, the United States Senate would have 39 percent of members in an age group that represents just 4.5 percent of the population.

The Supreme Court is worse. Five of the eight current justices are 70 or over, and if Sonia Sotomayor, 55, wins confirmation as expected, the 70-plus crowd will still hold a 5-4 majority.

The average age in the House is 56, which coupled with the two-year term makes it less of a problem than the average ages of the Senate, 62.

As for the presidency, those who wonder about the effects of age on performance in the office should consider Ronald Reagan’s second term, not in light of the affection that won him re-election, but in the sadder light of his performance and subsequent history.

The framers of the constitution were wise enough to set limits on being too young to serve in government and counted on mortality to watch the other end. It’s not watching like it used to and we need to set limits or risk having the future of the young and vital many held hostage to the fading memories of the few.

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