No, I don’t want Joe Biden to run again
Being President of the United States is a stressful job. President Biden is 79 years old and would be 83 at his inaugural if he wins a second term. If he served the entire term, he would leave the office at 87. Biden would be the oldest president ever if he wins the nomination and is elected.
President Biden has accomplished a lot, and I am grateful that he was elected, but I want some new blood within the party. I’m sick of tired of going high when Republicans go low. I want voters who I can identify with and who, like most Republicans, go off the deep end on a rant when something is said or done.
It’s inescapable that, as we get older, virtually all of us slow mentally and physically. Boomers need to relinquish government control to someone who can identify with Millennials and who understands their needs and wants.
More than 6 in 10 (63%) said they would be willing to vote for a candidate over 70 years old in Gallup polling in May. Of course, that means almost 4 in 10 people would not vote for a candidate over 70. And out of the 12 character traits Gallup asked about, a president over 70 years old ranked third in terms of how it would negatively affect voters’ decisions. Only an atheist presidential candidate (60% would vote for) and a socialist candidate (47%) scored lower.
I can’t imagine being in my 80’s and running around to deal with the issues facing our country. Some will always defy their age by staying in shape and because of their genes, but do we want to take that chance with Mr. Biden?
Biden & The Pandemic
One frequently heard pushback against vaccine mandates is that there is a “constitutional right” to choose whether to be vaccinated or not for adults and a right to determine whether children can be vaccinated. That is a non-starter amid a pandemic.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact guaranteeing a right to harm others. The government has the latitude to protect citizens from deadly conditions, especially when the science supporting vaccination is so clear.
Concerning children, parents do not have carte blanche. At one time, children were the property of their fathers, but that is no longer the case. Children are “persons” under the Constitution, and as the ruling in Prince v. Massachusetts held, parents do not have a constitutional right to make martyrs of their children. Parents should protect their children’s health and life, which means that the school district mandates that reduce the risk of death to children should be enforceable, period.
The Supreme Court explicitly upheld vaccine mandates against deadly diseases in Jacobson, where it explained: “the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand.” We live in a country of ordered liberty, not individual autonomy, that paves the way to the deaths of others. In short, it is not the right of every American citizen to catch and transmit a potentially fatal infection.
It is reckless at this point for the government not to mandate vaccination. Some politicians have falsely told Americans that they have a constitutional right to refuse vaccination. This is a license to potentially infect others with a deadly disease when the Supreme Court has consistently held otherwise.
Originally published at https://commonsenseandpolitics.com on January 4, 2022.
