Is ageism making it impossible to fairly judge Joe Biden
BY LYNN CASTEEL HARPER
I kept thinking there must be something more. In the days since the first presidential debate, every article and interview I read that called for President Joe Biden to exit the race used the same reason: He is too old. Is this it? I wondered. Is this all it takes to sideline a sitting president from pursuing a second term? A wobbly debate performance, quickly formulated, dire presumptions about his universal capacity to lead, and a chorus of pundits and politicians pronouncing him too old?
I am not suggesting that aging leaves us unchanged. It is not “just a number” of little consequence. Fresh limitations and challenges arise as the years go by, but other things can emerge too, such as refined perspective, greater discernment about what is important, and deepened relationships. Mr. Biden possesses many positive attributes that become possible with accumulated life experience, something that may not necessarily be true of his opponent in this election. Instead of relying on push-up contests or doctors’ pronouncements of fitness or an air of defiance (or panic), the Biden camp and the rest of us would do well to acknowledge the limits, the gifts, and the highly variable experiences of aging, and to bring to bear on this situation a deeper understanding of and resistance to ageism.c
“Ageism, or discrimination against older people due to negative and inaccurate stereotypes, is so ubiquitous in American culture as to be invisible.”
Over the past 15 years, I have worked with older adults in my profession, advocated for aging justice, and written about dementia, ageism, and spirituality. I am angered but not surprised when people are reduced to their age—or, for that matter, any single aspect of their identity—and dismissed because of it. Ageism, or discrimination against older people due to negative and inaccurate stereotypes, is so ubiquitous in American culture as to be invisible. While most people would find repugnant calls for someone to step down from a post because they are “too female” or “too Black” or “too gay,” it is somehow acceptable to dismiss someone for being “too old.”
Like other forms of prejudice, ageism inflicts serious damage on people’s health and well-being. In addition to the daily insults older people endure (just walk down a birthday card aisle or notice the deluge of “anti-aging” products), older adults are at risk for employment discrimination, negative biases in health care that lead to shoddier care, and mistreatment and neglect so pervasive that they constitute a distinct category of harm: elder abuse.
Featured Image: U.S. President Joe Biden walks at Dane County Regional Airport, in Madison, Wisc., on July 5, 2024. (OSV News photo Nathan Howard/Reuters)
This is an excerpt from America – The Jesuit Review written by Lynn Casteel Harper. Here is a link to the full article.
Lynn Casteel Harper is an essayist, minister and chaplain. She authored On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to Disappear
