An election for the ages and aged

I'm not a young man.

It hurts to type that short sentence, but then again, pretty much everything hurts these days. Still, the physical effects of my sixty-plus birthdays are less painful than the social and cultural insults piled on to America's senior citizens.

In Africa and Asia, the elderly are venerated as oracles, keepers of traditions and collective wisdom. In our culture seniors are disparaged as drags on society; obstacles to Social Security reform and hoarders of wealth and homes their children and grandchildren will never be able to afford. The once totally cool and hip Baby Boomers are now cursed as pickleball playing parasites who won't get out of the way and give another generation a chance! So, out of spite, we gobble every pill hawked on the Lester Holt show to live even longer.

Two old men are now running for president of the United States. The same two old men who ran for president four years ago. Both Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden have exhibited obvious signs of physical and mental deterioration since the last election cycle, and that's saying something. Despite repeated denials by the candidates and their assorted

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dnforum@dailynews.com (Please do not include any attachments) flunkies, our eyes don't lie even if everyone else does. Each time President Biden fumbles through a speech or confuses Mexico with Egypt or Donald Trump thinks Nikki Haley is Nancy Pelosi and gives Vladimir Putin the greenlight to attack our closest allies, the TV talking heads speculate how the critical “senior citizen vote” will respond to political attacks focused on age.

No need to fret, fellas. We're used to it.

I play softball in the LA Rec and Parks senior league. Our teams are populated with 60, 70 and 80-somethings. We even have a 91-year-old, a local legend named Sy Badener. On the field we live a Walter Mittyesque delusional flashback to those long-ago days when we could score from second, throw to home without hitting three cutoff men, and at the very least, remember if we are the home team or the visitors. In senior softball, ice packs and Epsom salt are more important than bats and gloves. Our age-related ailments are universal and therefore we tend to be a forgiving bunch when the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And it helps that the stakes are low. Chances are, even if we make a terrible blunder that costs our team a game, nobody will remember

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next week. The same cannot be said for the leader of the free world.

The age issue is impossible to ignore this election cycle. We confront it in our own lives on a daily basis, why shouldn't we consider it when we vote? The Wife and I just returned from a thousand-mile road trip from Portland to Los Angeles. After flying north, we rented a cargo van to retrieve furniture and personal belongings from a rental property we recently sold. The 40-year-old Enterprise manager seemed especially solicitous about our ability to safely operate a large van with limited visibility during a long slog through driving rain.

Not everybody ages equally. There are vital 90-year-olds and infirm 30-somethings. Still, a minimum requirement for the presidency should be the physical stamina and mental acuity to hold a conversation without a team of damage control advisors racing to the microphones to explain what he meant to say.

There's something to be said for experience. But there's also something to be said for taking a bow and leaving the stage gracefully.

Doug McIntyre's column appears Sundays. His novel, “Frank's Shadow” is available at amazon.com. Reach him at: Doug@DougMcIntyre.com.

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