This post is going to smack of age discrimination, and I am sorry about that. We cannot elect another President that is older than Generation X. There are too many reasons.
1. By the end of the Trump Presidency the Baby Boomer Generation will have been in power for 28 years (unless it ends sooner), and with that we are not doing very well as a country. The idealistic Boomer generation has led us down some disturbing pathways that have led us to massive wealth inequalities and constant never-ending wars.
2. Two of the candidates (Joe and Bernie) are older than the Baby Boomer Generation. These candidates can’t relate to the issues that face many younger people. Both of them are very close in age to the rest of the Boomers. The Boomer Generation starts around 1946, Bernie was born in 1941, and Joe in 1942. Really not that far off. They grew up with many of the same events going on in their lives.
3. According to Pew Research the Millennial Generation is going to be larger than the Baby Boomer Generation. They will have more voting power going forward. The potential to skip Generation X is very high. (This may be one of the reasons Pete Buttigieg is having much success. Certainly not the only reason.) So Generation X could potentially have no say over the shape of our country.
4. If the Presidency is not allowed to pass down to the next generation then there will be a leadership knowledge gap going forward. While our Presidential norms are under assault as it is there are still concepts that can be shared by other living Presidents to pass that information down so our country maintains its memory.
Both Bernie and Joe are great in their own ways. But their time has passed and the Presidency must be passed down also. The Baby Boomer generation is clinging on as if they have no faith that the younger generations will ever be up to the task of leading the country. If Baby Boomers care about the continuation of our Republic they must step back.
Now I will go cry for being someone who is discriminating based on age.