OPINION: Aging in the time of an octogenarian presidency
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Jul. 15—It is curious to me that the principal Republican argument against President Joe Biden's reelection appears to be coalescing around his age, as inflation recedes, the economy improves and hateful culture war antics don't provide much traction.
After all, the leading GOP contender to challenge Biden is just three years younger.
I might agree that Biden looks more frail physically than Donald Trump, but the Democrat seems much more mentally agile. Just look at his concluding victory lap around a NATO world he's helped enormously to strengthen, a grueling trip that would have worn out many younger men.
Trump seems to manage only delusional self-involved rants about his own grievances, as the vise of justice keeps cranking down on him.
Now that we are living in the era of an Octogenarian presidency, I can't help but think of my own inevitable march toward old age, especially in a year when I experienced for the first time the pain of losing much-loved contemporaries.
I was inspired this week when I ran into an old friend, a very energetic and engaging 76-year-old, who was taking a leisurely afternoon swim among the boats moored in Stonington Harbor.
She is my new model for aging gracefully.
Like almost everyone I know who is that age, she has been through some major surgeries, for back and knee troubles. She's fully recovered and shrugged off the experience as over.
She recently lost a sister who resorted to euthanasia when cancer moved into her spine, because she lived in a country where she could. My friend said she will gladly make the same decision if the similar circumstances present themselves.
Meanwhile, she is planning long trips later this summer and fall with family, children and grandchildren.
"I'm very happy," she told me, as she toweled dry after her long swim. "I'm very lucky."
She looked happy, satisfied with life and ready for what it might bring next, even serious health challenges.
She made the simple pleasure of a leisurely July swim seem so fulfilling.
I am grateful to live in a time when the goal posts for attaining old age seem to keep moving further away. But like my friend, I hope I'm prepared to take what comes my way.
Having a president who is 80, and a likely reelection opponent just three years younger, is one of those things I could never have imagined as a kid, like commonplace hip replacements, gay marriage or video phone calls.
And yet here we are.
Whether you like Biden or Trump, I think you have to agree that it's remarkable that both men are suiting up and readying to compete, old age be damned.
I think the country will be able to choose one of them, age be damned.
And I believe the Republicans are going to lose the enormous voting power of we baby boomers if they continue to keep Joe Biden's age as a centerpiece of their campaign to get rid of him.
The older we get the more likely we are to vote.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
