At 78, Trumps age lends an unnerving weight to his vice presidential running mate.
And James Monroes actuarial prediction that dynastic presidencies were unlikely due to men typically expiring in their late 30s?
Picture Patrick Henry, all of 29, his impassioned cry of Give me liberty or give me death!
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump at a press conference this month.Mario Tama/Getty Images
silenced before it could echo through history.
Imagine Thomas Jefferson, a sprightly 33, barred from crafting the Declaration of Independence.
Why didnt the framers include an upper age limit?
It never came up.
Picture them, powdered heads bent over parchment, inventing a country.
They werent equipped with crystal balls to foresee how modern medicine would extend life expectancy.
The notion of cognitive decline in leadership was irrelevant.
If it had been front of mind, they would have left it to Washington, the ever-reliable precedent-setter.
He left office at a spry 64 years old, and they reasoned future leaders would simply follow suit.
This prompted the 22nd Amendment, which formally entrenched term limits into law.
The 25th Amendment, designed as a failsafe for presidential incapacity, has proven to be merely decorative.
According to the Pew Research Center,the public preferspresidents who arent senior citizens.
The debate barely flickers between parties.
