Op-Ed: Older and (maybe) wiser

When President Obama ran for office in 2008, he was doing so as a man who had two years of experience in the United States Senate. He was 47 years old. People believed that America needed a "fresh face" and new ideas. Now, eight years later, our country is deciding who will take over for him. The two candidates we have chosen are a decade older than the current office holder and, many hope, a decade wiser.

Children are taught from a very early age to respect their elders; they are taught that because older individuals tell stories that begin with, “When I was your age,” these individuals know much more about the world. While sometimes this proves to be false, many of us are frequently more than willing to listen to the wisdom of the generation before us. Employers will often listen to the opinions of those who have been with a company for a longer period of time, rather than those who have just started — even though the greener employees may very well have a clearer perspective. Many individuals have a predisposition to believe that when you are older, you are wiser. This idea has carried over into our politics, although it could very well have been unconsciously.

The candidates that did well in this year’s primary were those who were older and had been in the public eye much longer than President Obama when he became president. For example, Hillary Clinton was the first lady of the United States turned senator turned Secretary of State, while Ted Cruz served in various appointed federal offices before beginning his congressional career in the state of Texas. Bernie Sanders has been serving as a senator for decades, and while he was not well-known to the general public, he was well-respected in the political community. Donald Trump is an extremely well-known businessman and has also been toying with the idea of running for president since 1988. Of course, there were other candidates in the primaries, but they were largely ignored in favor of their opponents with which the general public were more familiar. Trust and familiarity in this election have allowed for two candidates to rise above all others. Our world is in a precarious state and so it would seem that the people want a sage leader who has been with them since the beginning.

The idea of having a president who is experienced and well-known goes back to the writing of the U.S. Constitution. There is a reason that the president must be 35 years old, while a member of the House can be 25 years old. It is again this stigma that responsibility and decision-making comes with age. George Washington was elected at the age of 57, a relatively older age in the 18th century, after having led the country through a revolution. The people were familiar with him and trusted his judgement and wisdom after years of fighting. His experience — combined with his age — made him a prime pick to become president.

So many different things go into becoming president and so many things need to be taken under consideration for the job. A 70-year-old candidate is not necessarily going to be a good president because they are older and have had more experience in the government. A 40-year-old candidate is not necessarily going to be a bad president because they have only been in elected office for four years. In this year’s election cycle, Marco Rubio spent the entire primary process deflecting attacks on his inexperience and his age, while Hillary Clinton recently spent a great deal of time being pestered about her pneumonia. These candidates are representative of the two ends of the scale: a young candidate that the American public worries lacks credentials and an older candidate that the American public worries is not physically healthy enough for the job. There are issues with both sides, and yet the candidates with age and credentials prevailed.

This year, Americans might have gone with the "wiser" candidates, but we certainly should not decide who our next president will be based solely off age or expertise. In the coming weeks, as debates begin, we should not just be looking at a candidate’s resume or medical record, we should also be looking at policies and temperament. When November comes, voters should push all prejudices aside and think about who they want to represent our country. Older is not always wiser and our opinions may not always be based off of facts. This election cycle has more than proved that we cannot agree on which road this country should be headed down, and we can only hope that our peers will pick our side.