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McConnell’s Situation Raises Legitimate Questions · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: Rumors have always drifted through the hulls of Washington like smoke.
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  Speaker 1: Most disappear as quickly as they arrive, But every so
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  Speaker 1: often the smoke comes from a fire politicians themselves helped build.
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  Speaker 1: Such is the case with Senator Mitch McConnell. His office
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  Speaker 1: has said very little about his condition following his latest hospitalization.
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  Speaker 1: Into that silence rushed the Internet, social media, and predictable speculation,
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  Speaker 1: some of it bordered on the absurd. Senate leaders insist
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  Speaker 1: they've recently this week spoken with the Kentucky Republican, contradicting
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  Speaker 1: the wildest claims now circulating online. And while we all
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  Speaker 1: wish Senator McConnell nothing but the very best, perhaps this
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  Speaker 1: moment gives us permission to ask a question Washington never
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  Speaker 1: seems eager to answer. Should there be an upper age
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  Speaker 1: limit for serving in Congress or even as President of
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  Speaker 1: the United States. The founding fathers thought deeply about age
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  Speaker 1: twenty five for the House, thirty for the Senate, thirty
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  Speaker 1: five for the presidency. They believed experience mattered. James Madison wrote,
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  Speaker 1: the Senate required greater knowledge, greater judgment, greater stability of character.
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  Speaker 1: But there was one thing the founders never debated how
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  Speaker 1: long should someone continue serving. Medicine has changed dramatically since
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty seven. Americans routinely live well into their eighties
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  Speaker 1: and beyond. That's something to celebrate, but longevity and capacity
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  Speaker 1: are not always the same thing. Corporate America realized that
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  Speaker 1: years ago most Fortune five hundred companies have mandatory retirement
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  Speaker 1: policies or age expectations for their top leadership. Not because
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  Speaker 1: growing older is a flaw, not because older people can
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  Speaker 1: offer experience, but because every institution eventually needs fresh eyes,
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  Speaker 1: fresh energy, and the next generation preparing to lead. Could
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  Speaker 1: government benefit from the same principle. Reasonable people disagree experience
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  Speaker 1: is invaluable. Voters deserve the freedom to choose whom they elect,
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  Speaker 1: and there are many Americans in their seventies and eighties
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  Speaker 1: who remain remarkably sharp. But asking the question isn't disrespectful
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  Speaker 1: avoiding it. Maybe this discussion isn't really about Mitch McConnell
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  Speaker 1: or Donald Trump or Joe Biden, or the next president
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  Speaker 1: or the president after that. It's about whether the institutions
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  Speaker 1: that govern three hundred and forty million Americans are designed
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  Speaker 1: not just for the past, but for the future. Washington
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  Speaker 1: asks the American people to confront difficult questions difficult issues
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  Speaker 1: every day. Perhaps it's time Washington answered one itself.