Bernie Sanders, as we all know, is running to be the President of the United States for the second time. The question is, how will his age and recent heart attack affect the decision of his potential voters? Age plays such a large role in obtaining and maintaining a presidency. You must be at least 35 years old to become a president and be in good health in order to keep up with the presidential duties. We all saw how quickly President Obama aged within the four short years of his first term and then after eight years, the light draining from his eyes, his hair turning a vibrant silver and the frowning lines on his face deepening. When I look at Obama now, he looks old even though he is only 58. Bernie, at 78, already has all of the features that were bestowed upon Obama after eight years. It is a given fact that as we age, our bodies deteriorate. Even in healthy adults, our hearts have to work harder and our cognitive ability starts to diminish. While everyone ages differently, there is a similar pattern that our bodies go through. Having three candidates running for president over 70 years old is difficult. People age differently and we have no idea how the three of them will tackle their role in American politics while attempting to curb their aging.
While Bernie did decide to continue on with campaign after his heart attack, what implications does this have on his potential presidency? My government class addressed this question a few days after his potentially career changing heart attack. We talked about how important it is for candidates to be healthy. The one thought that kept circulating in my head is that Bernie and all of the other primary Democratic candidates, are aging. Plain and simple. He is not young anymore and thus unable to keep up with the demanding pressures of running for president. If he does not have the physical ability to fully participate, what would the quality of his presidency be? As we heard in the last Democratic debate, Sanders is back and ready to keep moving on with his candidacy. He promoted an event in Queens and thanked all those who had supported him through his heart attack. And while he seemed enthused by his return to the campaign, I was not sold right away. If this incident happened once, it will most likely happen again and with Bernie’s age, it could definitely affect his health in ways more severe than this first heart attack. This, obviously is not ideal because we, as a country, need a president who will fight to correct the mistakes and wrongdoings of past administrations. As a result, this could potentially put more pressure on whoever Bernie’s running mate for vice president is; if Bernie passes away during his term, the vice president has to carry out the rest of the term. Consequently, voters looking to vote for Bernie, instead of caring mostly about his positions on social and political reforms, may focus on his choice of running mate and how well he or she would do representing the United States. As a result of this kind of thinking, I personally have put Bernie’s campaign on the back-burner due to the fact that I do not want to focus on a vice presidential rather than an actual presidential campaign. This could happen with the two other candidates, Warren and Biden because they, too, are over 70 and could also experience health issues of their own.
Could this way of thinking change the polls? If it does, spots for either a younger candidate or someone who has not quite made a popular vote could open up, leaving the voting population left with difficult choices to make for our next president of the United States. •
