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Comment by batch12 | Hacker News Reader

It'd be nice if we even had viable candidates who were close to this line. It may be an improper statement, but a president at 70-80 won't be around long enough to see the full impact of many of the decisions they make. Maybe an upper limit is needed...

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Totally agree. Unfortunately, it will never happen. Not without a violent revolution, anyways, and that would be worse.

If we could just get approval voting implemented universally, maybe we wouldn't need an enforced upper limit.

I think a 1-line amendment would be one of the more plausible amendments to pass.

"No person may be inaugurated as President if they are 70 years or older on the day of the election"

Neither party or area of the country would be impacted any more than any other, so there's no partisan angle. Just a few older politicians would be excluded.

That doesn't sound very democratic at all. If the people want to nominate older candidates in the primaries, who are we to criticize that? Isn't that what democracy is all about?

Most democratic processes have limits. While it's amusing to have subs named Boaty McBoatface, completely unfettered democracy isn't as amusing when there are serious consequences, such as long-term elections to national office.

We have primaries and qualifications for getting on the ballot, and while one might quibble about the exact details, I don't think most people would be happy if we somehow collectively elected a 10-year-old, or a goat, as President of the United States of America.

I disagree. The world needs more democracy, not less. I think the main problem is in how we are only allowed to vote on representatives and not on the actual issues. Take a look at Switzerland how their democracy is organized, with as much power with the local Gemeinde as possible and voting directly on whatever issue has been raised.

Yeah, maybe. A few bad 70+ year old presidents may make it more palatable though.

But if they are young they have to make friends who support them after they leave the office. So they work for future favors of some specific donors.

An old person doesn't have to care about a future career once out of office and can ignore bribes. (Yeah yeah reality might prove differently)

Or they already owe lots of favors to donors who helped them throughout their career and are helped into a spot to pay them back... with no risk of future consequences.

no risk either if they don't return favors?

> It'd be nice if we even had viable candidates who were close to this line.

Ron DeSantis is 44 years old, quite close to that line. He is likely to be candidate for your presidency one of these years. You may not like him - or maybe you do - but he seems to be quite viable. If your former president does not get in the way he is likely to be the candidate for the Republican party and with that the next president of the USA given the dearth of viable candidates on "the other side".

I think Gavin Newsom can take on DeSantis. Don't know who would win, but it wouldn't be a blowout.

Newsom is probably their most viable candidate, true. If the population statistics are anything to go by he won't be able to win seeing how as people move (they often call it 'flee') from California to Florida (and Texas and some other places but Florida seems to be the #1 destination?). Newsom is also burdened with a number of scandals which DeSantis thus far seems to have avoided, all the more remarkable since Newsom mostly has the media on his side. California is also marked by a number of problems which Florida has largely avoided, from rolling blackouts to cities being taken over by homeless encampments and more. This would make the debate centre around Newsom which does not bode well for his chances.

> a president at 70-80 won't be around long enough to see the full impact of many of the decisions they make

Presumably there are advantages there too. Perhaps harder to bribe or threaten someone older (they don’t care as much?)

We need an age restriction on president too. Something around 60-70 years old at inauguration, max age.

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