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Age vs. cognition — ask the DMV

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The opinions in this article are those of its authors and do not represent this or any other entity they may represent.

It seems the age debate has intensified since Joe Biden announced his reelection campaign. The left propaganda-wielding MSNBC continues to use ageism and discrimination to defend attacks on Biden’s age. Conversely, there is a growing consensus that eighty is too old to run the country. Like most discussions today, this is a moot point. Today, there are no age limits on the books for any elected officials, including the President.

Last week I had the opportunity to help my friend’s grandmother renew her license at the DMV. She’s eighty-five years old and beats me at Scrabble, risk, and Jeopardy. I can only assume she can do cartwheels around the yard, as she can outrun me in a flash. Additionally, my friend’s grandma could be the president. She demonstrated the cognitive skills that would give me the utmost confidence in her leadership despite her being eighty-five. My grandfather, for example, played golf, drove, volunteered, and taught until his mid-nineties. As the adage goes, “Age is merely a number.”

As we walk up to the counter, the lady at the DMV acknowledges that we were there for her “senior renewal.” As a novice in senior care, I had to ask the difference between a senior license renewal and a traditional renewal.

In many states driving restrictions for seniors can start as early as sixty-two. In-office renewals, mandatory eye exams, and more frequent renewals are some of the most common restrictions. At eighty-five, she was required to renew in person every year, pass the eye exam, and pass a written driving test every three years. Part of me was impressed by how the government has tried to save seniors driving when they shouldn’t be. The other part of me understood the frustration and inconvenience. However, my most profound realization was that our state governments force local seniors to jump through hoops to ensure they’re cognitively able to drive. Yet, our president shakes hands with the air and stumbles around like a drunk sailor.

Biden has openly refused to take cognitive testing, while Trump has undergone a few by now. Biden’s clean bill of health did not include his cognitive abilities, and it’s not uncommon for someone with dementia to be in perfect physical health. Sadly, those essential medical exams by the president’s personal doctors lead people to believe that it covers all aspects of health.

If we continue to go around and around about age limitations, we will be in forever limbo. Age expectancy changes, and so does the definition of senior citizens. Our founding fathers could have implemented an age limit of 40 years old because life expectancy was much shorter. Age and aging are constantly evolving. Furthermore, with specific age limits, you can miss an opportunity to work with incredibly valuable people without cognitive challenges. My friend’s grandmother is a prime example. We must stop mixing up age with cognition. Donald Trump is only four years younger than Joe Biden, yet he does intellectual circles around the President. We would hate for an age cut-off to exclude someone as active and dynamic as President Trump.

We must implement cognitive testing to weed out the politicians on life support or those who can’t formulate a solution to a common problem. If seniors across the country must prove their cognitive and physical ability to drive a vehicle, why shouldn’t those we elect have to prove they can do their job? It’s not uncommon for an employer to request a skills assessment, so why should it differ for elected officials? Most Americans would agree that having a functioning brain is essential to being an elected official. The biggest challengers to cognitive testing will be politicians with superiority complexes that think they know what’s best for us and that they’re smarter. On top of that, we will hear that medical information is confidential as an excuse to avoid testing. Unfortunately for them, you forfeit that right when you sign up to represent millions of people, and these tests just won’t require any personal details and spit out a simple pass or fail.

There is no reason, excuse, or justification for not implementing and supporting cognitive testing for elected officials. Allowing someone on capitol hill to serve under the radar with dementia is just another way we’ve allowed our politicians to run amuck. We have every right to know if our representatives have functioning brains, but like all else, these critical issues have been swept under the carpet to protect loser lifers sucking the blood from taxpayers. If we’re the actual employer of these politicians, demanding a skill assessment is not unreasonable. Sadly, this is another example of something the people must take back themselves. Washington Politicians will never vote to be tested by term if it could hurt them. However, when the local DMV office has better cognitive testing requirements than the President, there’s a big problem.

Let me know your thoughts on twitter @lastgaycons

2 Comments

  1. Excuse me? But if ‘we the people’ are incapable of electing someone other than a ‘turd sandwich’ or ‘giant douche’ then perhaps it should be ‘we the people’ being required to pass the cognitive test.

  2. Assessment for cognitive impairment can be performed at any visit but is now a required component of the Medicare Annual Wellness visit.
    If it’s required for the rest of us why does POTUS get a pass?

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