EDITORIAL: Pay no attention to the Dementia Dinosaurs

June 19, 2024 108

An opinion piece written by our summer correspondent Jacob Hamm in the closing moments of the spring 2024 semester in the Daily Eastern News has been on my mind for a while. But it’s not in my mind for any reason that he or anyone else may be thinking. In fact, five of the six candidates running for President are old as hell, hence my nickname for them: the Dementia Dinosaurs.

Sure, while the Democratic and Republican primaries have pretty much been decided, it should be even more damning regarding how short-sighted partisan voters of the duopoly are to be demanding a repeat of 2020.

Here’s the issue: Joe Biden is 81. Should he win in November, he will be 82 by the time he’s sworn in for his second and final term. Donald Trump just recently turned 78. If you’re not concerned about the age of the duopoly’s chosen nominees, then we have a problem.

I’ve been calling for a maximum age for all levels of political office for years now. By the time my fellow Millennials are allowed to retire, the retirement age will be somewhere closer to 72. Even setting a maximum age of 72 is still too high, but I can see where there would be complaints about the maximum age to hold political office at age 65.

While I commend the passing of Measure 1 last week in North Dakota, setting a maximum age of 81 for Congressional office still encourages lifelong politicians to stay in office for way too long. That referendum passed by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Only enforcing the maximum age on only Congressional offices is not limiting enough.

Contrary to what Christopher Rhodes wrote in an article nearly one year ago for Al Jazeera, not only should there be a maximum age to hold political office, but there should also be term limits.

Keep in mind that roughly 21% of registered voters vote Democrat or Republican, while independents and nonpartisan voters are the dominant voter demographic. Generation X and Millennials represent the largest voter bloc. Millennials are getting fed up with the two-party system much faster than previous election cycles.

Jacob mentioned his editorial regarding something former President Trump said on social media that “our country is in hell.”

America has been in hell long before Trump or Biden ever set foot in the White House. In fact, do you know the Mike Judge movie Idiocracy? That is the hell we live in every day. Some of my generation claim that the American idiocracy started during Ronald Reagan. Others believe that it started as far back as JFK. I’m starting to believe both figures have played a role in developing the modern American idiocracy.

Let’s also not forget Joe Biden when he was a U.S. Senator, created a crime bill that further escalated the failed war on drugs. Guess who benefitted incredibly from that crime bill? His running mate Kamala Harris, back when she was a district attorney in California.

But let’s also not ignore that Trump is a lifelong Democrat (who also continues to hold a Democratic voter registration) who’s doing a terrible job playing Republican. (Or as people like to call them, Republicans in Name Only, or RiNOs.)

Neither Trump nor Biden has a solution to resolve the rampant inflation plaguing the nation, and it’s not like they can do anything about it, considering that no one manipulates inflation except the Federal Reserve System, which needs to be abolished.

There’s a massive disagreement on what the consensus is on the health of the American economy. Democrats and Republicans will never be able to gauge accurately the health of the economy because they’re all economically and fiscally illiterate.

But let’s not just focus on just the top two Dementia Dinosaurs. They’re merely part of the wider problem. Dr. Jill Stein, who has run for President three other times (2012, 2016, 2020) under the banner of the Green Party, recently turned 74. Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (and his deceased brain worm) is 70 years old. Another fellow independent, Cornell West, is 71 years old.

Are you not following my rationale yet? Five presidential candidates that are polling are over the age of 70. Three of them — Trump, Biden, and Kennedy — can’t even form coherent sentences without the assistance of a teleprompter. The youngest person running for President in the 2024 election is 38 years old — activist Chase Oliver, who earned the presidential nomination with the Libertarian Party during its national convention in Washington D.C. last month.

If anything, Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z voters should be rebelling against the Dementia Dinosaurs being propped up by the two major parties in November.

But just because the idiotic masses of the American idiocracy want to force you to choose between Dementia War Criminal 1 and Dementia War Criminal 2 in November, I’ll just reference the sage writings of one Gerry Rafferty:

Trying to make some sense of it all
But I can see it makes no sense at all
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor?
‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore
Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle with you
Stealer’s Wheel – “Stuck in the Middle with You” (co-written by Rafferty and Joe Egan)

Regardless, if you vote Democrat, you’re an ignorant clown. If you vote Republican, you’re a braindead joker.

Jake Leonard

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Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.