Does the President have to be Elderly?

Full disclosure: I wrote this blog post a couple of years ago and updated it for 2016.

I am a proud alumni of Lafayette High School - class of 1979.  Next month I will be 55 years old; I was born in 1961. Also born in 1961 - Barack Obama.  His birthday is in August, while mine is in June, and so for the first time there is a sitting US President born after I was.  This makes me feel old.

I think about those facts a bit and honestly I think 55 is a good age to be the leader of the free world.  You have gained enough experience to be able to handle the responsibility, and you still have enough energy to perform a very demanding job.  I certainly do not mean to say that someone older or younger could not do just as well or better, just that now that I am “of a certain age” I have some perspective on the issue.

I was somewhat surprised to learn that the average age of our country’s founders on July 4^th, 1776 was only 44 years old.  Yes, Benjamin Franklin was 70 years old, only surpassed by Samuel Whittemore who was 81.  But Thomas Jefferson was only 33.  John Jay was 30, as was Dr. Benjamin Rush.  James Madison was only 25.  Alexander Hamilton was 21, as was Nathan Hale.  James Monroe was only 18.

Some were a little older.  George Washington was 44.  John Adams and Patrick Henry were 40.  Thomas Paine and John Hancock were both 39.  Perhaps even more surprising is that King George the Third was only 38.  Well above the average was Samuel Adams who was 53 years old, just a year younger than Barack Obama and I are now.

For youngsters, they did pretty well.  I am not sure older men (like me) would have had the fire, passion, and energy to pull off a Revolution and launch a brand new government.  These were not only young men, but they were already experienced and educated.  They had read the great philosophers and knew their history and they put together an amazing new form of government.

In stark contrast to the relative youth of our founders is our current leadership in Washington.  Out of 100 US Senators, 24 are older than Benjamin Franklin was (70) at the signing of the Declaration.  Diane Feinstein and Chuck Grassley were born in 1933.  Orrin Hatch and Carl Levin were born in 1934.  John McCain was born in 1936, Thad Cochran in 1937, and Harry Reid, Tom Harkin, and Steny Hoyer in 1939.  Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer were born in 1940, and Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell in 1942.  In case you were wondering, Hillary Clinton was born in 1947, a year after George W. Bush, and Donald Trump was born in 1946.  He will be 70 next month.  Bernie Sanders was born in 1941, so he will be 75 in September.

Don’t get me wrong.  There are lots of folks who do very well at very advanced age.  I am not engaging in age discrimination here, and as you can see this is a bipartisan phenomenon.  Ronald Reagan was not exactly young when he took office, and he did a fine job, although one has to wonder about his last couple of years in office.  Being president takes a tremendous toll on a person at any age.

But I will wonder aloud whether or not the pendulum may have swung a little too far toward the older end of the scale.  Certainly all of us have more energy and vigor when we are younger, balanced by having more experience and wisdom when we are older.  People in general are a little sharper and more motivated in their youth and more cautious and settled in their older age.  Perhaps had the founders been a little older we would not have had an American Revolution at all. 

Austin Petersen was born in 1981, which means he is 35 years old.  Austin is running for President as a Libertarian.  Austin was born and raised in Missouri and lives in Kansas City. He is Pro-Life and a strong supporter of religious freedom, but he also a champion of individual liberty and constitutional government.

I am convinced that Austin Petersen has the knowledge and maturity to occupy the Oval Office in the White House.  He also brings a principled set of libertarian principles and fiscal conservatism that would be a breath of fresh air in Washington. And he has the ability to put current social issues in their proper context in terms of government.  When individuals in society are allowed to live their lives as they see fit, free from government, a society thrives.  When government is smaller and less onerous, the economy will grow. 

We need to reverse course in this country.  We are faced with two major parties which have given us two bad choices.  If we really want change we should not just keep doing what we have always done and hoping for a better outcome.  We should stop voting against the lesser of two evils and actually cast a vote FOR a candidate with clearly articulated values that match our own.

Austin Petersen would shrink government.  He would cut spending.  He would champion individual liberty and let people live their lives as they see fit so long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others.  He would deal a real blow to crony capitalism.  And he would keep us safe while not running around the world trying to involve us in nation building.

Perhaps we need Supreme Court Justices who would be in the mold of Judge Andrew Napolitano.  Maybe we could use someone who would actually respect the constitution rather than legislate from the bench.

I have thought about it a lot, and what this country needs is not just more typical leaders that have either been part of a party apparatus for several decades or have “name recognition” or “executive style hair”.  We need passion and energy and a new outlook.  We need change.  We need to engage the youth and bring in more people to participate.  We need a new paradigm.  The old big-business-as-usual mindset that has infected leaders on both sides from Jefferson City to Washington DC an overhaul.

Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison was 25 when it was signed.  I think we could use a young man like Austin Petersen as we take on the challenge of reforming this nation into the Land of Liberty it once was.

Find out more about Austin Petersen here:http://austinpetersen2016.com/