A fellow blogger, Caren White, has written a disturbing piece of discriminatory rationalization. It’s ageism at its worst, but really, she was justifying any sort of discrimination, whether on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, or anything else. Because the flawed logic she uses can be applied to any group you want.
I don’t care if you call me racist, sexist, or ageist. We need to put limits on the ages of the people serving in the very highest levels of government. … It’s not that I don’t think that elderly people are capable of holding senior positions. … my problem with elderly people in the highest levels of government is that they are determining the shape and direction of a future that they will never see while robbing the people who will have to live in that future any say in those decisions.
— Caren White
It’s particularly disgusting because Ms White appears to espouse liberal thinking, yet on this topic she’s as biased and discriminatory as the worst of the MAGA crowd.
Let’s start with the most basic fact about discrimination. Any time you start an argument by grouping an entire demographic group, be it by race, sex, age, or anything else, and then making a disparaging assertion about that group, you are wrong, wrong, wrong. The most basic tenet of fairness is that every person is an individual, and deserves to be judged by their own virtues and flaws. Anything, anything, that does otherwise is immoral, judgmental, and counterproductive to civil dialog.
Try this on for size, Ms White:
We need to put age limits on government officials: nobody under the age of forty has the wisdom and experience necessary to govern. These youngsters are determining the shape and direction of their future but have completely inadequate real-life experiences to make sound judgements. They’re robbing the future of wisdom that only comes from age and making poor decisions that older, wiser people would never make.
— me
Seriously, there is truth to this argument. I regularly see young adults, including my own children whom I admire in every way, make poor decisions that I made before and learned from. With experience, they’ll learn, as I did. The same applies to politicians: It’s the senior politicians in Congress and the White House who remember and had to actually deal with the Soviet Union, rampant inflation, the days when privacy was a given, and much, much more. I regularly read about young politicians who advocate policies that history has shown don’t work, but luckily, they work with more experience colleagues who rein them in.
But I would never, ever make this argument for real. I only present it here to show how deeply absurd and discriminatory White’s position is.
Or take White’s argument and cast it at any other demographic group. You could just as easily claim (as many have) that one group is better suited to rule than another: whites over Blacks, men over women, religious leaders over everyone else, conservatives over LGBTQ. In every case, the argument is identical to White’s claim, and is equally indefensible.
Let me say it again: Every person should, and must, be judged as an individual.
And also nearly as offensive is White’s assertion that, “they are determining the shape and direction of a future that they will never see,” in which she clearly implies that these older politicians are self-serving jerks only looking out for themselves. Seriously?
Bernie Sanders is one of the most progressive politicians of our era, and in fact has been embraced by younger voters. Would we ban him from the position he holds? Would we seriously want to lose the incredible influence he’s had on the Democratic Party over the last ten years? Although he lost the primary presidential race, his influence forced Biden and others to shift significantly to the left with their policies. He brought incredible energy to the campaign, and although progress is frustratingly slow in the face of the MAGA Republicans, Bernie’s hand is visible in a great deal of the progress that we’ve made since Biden’s election. Would White have banned Bernie? Yes, she would.
Elizabeth Warren — same story. She’s been amazing at attacking big pharma and big business, among many other progressive actions. Would White have banned Elizabeth? Yes, she would.
And the converse is true: the younger politicians are also amazing. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pete Buttigieg, John Fetterman, and so many others, provide incredible insights and energy to our government.
We need balance, not discrimination. We need the wisdom that comes with experience alongside the openness to new ideas and solutions that comes with youth. We need collaboration between the generations. We need our government to represent the people — all the people — without discriminating against any group for any reason.
And we need to let the voters decide, not pass some arbitrary discriminatory rule.
If White really wants to solve this problem, I suggest she get wholeheartedly behind voting reform. If we overturn Citizens United, get rid of Super Pacs, and force all politicians to reveal who their donors are, we can make it much easier for young politicians to oust the old dinosaurs who kowtow to the big corporations and make Congress their personal gravy train. Now that would be worthwhile reform.
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