October 4, 2023

Running for President of the United States Opened - How 'Age Discrimination' Could Cost Joe Biden His Second Term

Running for President of the United States Opened – How ‘Age Discrimination’ Could Cost Joe Biden His Second Term

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The current President of the United States is 79 years old. He can run for a second term. Is he old then?

Will the current US President Biden run for another term? Vice President Kamala Harris hinted at this on CBS on Sunday. The problem: His party is expressing great concerns.

Biden’s skills and age have been criticized

According to a recent New York Times poll, 64 percent of Democratic voters favor a new peak in the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden’s leadership qualities are also called into question. The poll numbers are worse than those of his Republican predecessor Trump, writes Der Spiegel.

Biden isn’t the biggest – but he’s not the youngest either

About a third of those surveyed say the current president is “not doing a good job”. However, many found that Biden was no longer a suitable candidate due to his age. “Sleepy Joe” – this is how the 79-year-old is ridiculed in the United States. Nickname created by Donald Trump by the way.

Age discrimination – a social problem

Biden was 77 years old when he moved into the White House in 2020. This makes him the oldest president the United States has ever known. But does Biden’s age define his role as president at all?

That’s the wrong question, says Mike Martin, an age researcher and professor of geriatric psychology at the University of Zurich. This means that the increase in life is accompanied by limitations. “In terms of the scientific findings, the question of whether he can still do this has nothing to do with age,” says the gerontologist.

So to say that Joe Biden is not a suitable candidate for president because he is old would be discrimination – discrimination on the basis of age. Martin confirms this, too.

Age stereotypes will have an effect on how others view us. We see an older person, we expect them to forget, for example, and we see individual falsity as an affirmation of clichés. That’s what Martin told the Sunday newspaper a year ago.

Should society bid farewell to overly simplistic stereotypes? Martin says you don’t have to tell people to stop showing old stereotypes. “You could try, for example, to identify the individual competencies that Biden should have in office in order to make a good prediction of whether that will be the case in the next few years,” Martin says.

What Switzerland is doing against age discrimination


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Pro Senectute wrote on request: “We have dealt with the issue of discrimination against the elderly since the foundation of our organization, we are always on the lookout for it and take appropriate measures if necessary.”

These measures are, for example:

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