Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.
By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.
What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.
Yesterday, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that he would be seeking a second term as president and will be running for re-election in 2024.
When Americans go to vote in the general election on November 5, 2024, Joe Biden will be 81 and will turn 82 just 15 days later. He already is the oldest person to hold the Office of President. And if he’s victorious in winning his second term, he would be 86 at the end of that term.
Donald Trump, who is leading the field of Republican candidates, is 76. If he succeeds in winning their party’s nomination, and, God forbid, wins a second term, he would be 77 on Election Day and the second oldest president in history behind Biden.
The United States sets a minimum age for someone to serve as POTUS, which is 35. But there is no maximum age to run for that office. My provocative question this week is:
Do you believe that Joe Biden, at 82 shortly after Election Day 2024, is too old to seek that office. What about Donald Trump at 77? Most important, do you think there should be a maximum age set for an individual to run for President of the United States?
If you choose to participate in Fandango’s Provocative Question, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.
This, That, and the Other 
Joe Biden should not run for president. He should support Kamila as the next president. He already looks not in command. As for Trump, why isn’t he behind bars?
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💪 If not Kamala, then Michelle! I was holding out for Michelle but she’s smart enough to get the hell out! 🤣🤣
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As to Kamala, I’m not sure she could win. Her biggest liability in America is that she’s not male. As to Trump, he should be in jail. But there are different rules in this country with respect to the rich and famous.
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Yes, I agree with you on both points. But imagine how good it would brr Red if you had a sensible and young female president.
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@Fandango, absolutely agree! I just posted on another thread (not sure if you saw it) about her ego being a woman. I’ve worked in a male dominated business and I have been almost chewed up and spit out by my male counterparts, luckily, I have a very large vocabulary, (nice words) and I learned how to use them very effectively. However, I’ll have to admit, I have been let go from a job or two because “that kind of bullying is not tolerated.” 🤣🤣🤣 AS IF!
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I am really surprised there aren’t youngsters to run such a big country on both sides of the aisle! There should be an age limit .
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Yes, Yes and Yes (although you’re point is dangerously close to those who will scream “age discrimination”). Not me!
Neither man is fit for office.
PS – So much for non-provocative questions, Fan. This one is downright incendiary! 😂
That’s it – all I’m gonna say on any political question.
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Yeah, I figured it was time again to go deep.
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Yes, yes, and yes. Age 70 max on Inauguration Day. Same for congresspeople. It’s ridiculous to have 85+ year olds in there!
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Yes, I agree!
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Hmmm.. I love the idea of the age limit! Especially when it comes to running an entire country. Buuutttt…if Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still alive and well..she decided to run.. I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment when it came time for voting! I have seen some pretty scary things happen in the last 7 years. I don’t know if Don Trump developed some mental health problems during his time in office, but he was not fit! I voted for Biden.. and he is scaring me!! There is not a solid, long term solution that he has put together yet that isn’t turning the worms over in their little wormy homes. Sounds mind! Part of the oath.. I am afraid ladies and gentlemen we have come to an impasse. (I love the idea of banter back and forth; it keeps me thinking, open minded and respectful! 🤭
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Yes, RBG was exceptional, but if there were age limits like 70 or 75 as of Inauguration Day, I think we’d all be better off. The risks of having an old fart with potentially declining mental acuity as POTUS are too great. Biden should hand the baton to Kamala and then maybe we’ll finally have a female president.
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Yes!! I do think having a woman president would definitely change things up a bit! However, I am not sure that Kamala would be able to keep her ego in check. I do have mad respect for her but I have also seen some things that I have to question. Yet..the flip side is that it is exactly what this nation needs…members of Government who are willing to flip the switch and get a few people pissed off..there’s too many chips in and around the Cabinets! It starts with a little bill, then to get a signature from a opposing party, one chip goes into the proverbial basket, (Sec 3310.120A Paragraph C subsection 3310.120.11 paragraph D subsection d line 24) that says the opposition will vote for the bill in exchange for the support of a future tax referendum regarding a Bill that is being drafted to raise taxes in the city of Beaumont to cover the expenses that are going to be incurred by filling the city who requested funding from the federal government to fund the pothole projects and homeless relocation projects. NO VOTER IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER VOTE FOR SUCH BLASPHEMY! Yet we don’t ever actually see the bill, and even if the voters did, it’s written in a foreign reference language and the lil chip in the basket is so far buried in the bill that the general public who does have the common knowledge of the language will not get far enough into it before giving up to see the under handed back room poker chip bargains that go on. I personally have seen this shit! Working with the team that writes the language for it. Many years ago..me 8 other people, a really high level person from let’s just say the arches have been warped.. and the lobbyists.. bill being written..1st minimum wage increase bill from $7.25! Sorry I ranted, but we just simply need an entire oversight committee of regular citizens to make sure that the government is really doing their jobs to protect the people! 😡 I did mention that I am really passionate about government right? 🧐
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Yes, your passion comes through. Unfortunately, while I completely agree with you, you’re taking an ax to the way our lawmaking process works (or doesn’t actually work) and those who have power to change things don’t have the incentive or motivation to fix what’s broken when it benefits them. And the average citizen probably had their eyes glaze over right after you wrote, “It starts with a little bill….”
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I can’t know the future of Biden. My hope is a democrat will show up and be a viable candidate but if not and if the powers that be don’t act and get off their duffs, Trump will run again and I would not be surprised if he won. Why isn’t he being tried now for insurrection? Where are the consciences of our elected persons?🙈
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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I’m with you on this one!! The only President who has scandal written all over his wall since Nixon..well Kennedy and Clinton but their inability to keep their male parts in their pants never affected my taxes or the ability to pay my bills! Kennedy was a big time evolutionist who turned this nation upside down and then they killed him for it! Clinton, well he’s just Bilenski to me but I wasn’t really interested in politics when he held office.
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I wish someone could convince Obama to run again. Either Barack or Michelle.
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😔If only our country were so lucky!!!
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Michelle has said — very loudly and clearly — that she has absolutely NO interest in politics. Her years as FLOTUS were more than enough for a lifetime. I think it’s possible this is equally true of Obama.
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They have no consciences, anymore. They’re driven by greed, ideology, and unenlightened self-interests.
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An idea I’d be good with is that the person can’t be older than 75 on the last day in office if he’s/she’s going to run for office… although there could be a provision that the other person on the ticket can automatically become the president in the case the top of the ticket turns 76. There are people who are very spry and sharp at that age, but I don’t think we should take these chances and have operatives running the office rather than the person named; the operatives might be what happens anyway as President, however.
I’d go ahead and vote for Kamala. I’d prefer her, too.
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Not simply because of age.
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RFK Jr Sees 19% Dem Support in New Poll;
Biden Aides [worried about Kamala
remaining on] Ticket: Report
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RFK Jr may call himself a Democrat but he is rather conservative.
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I’m willing to hear him out. The main reason I shared the video, though, is this trend that’s been going on (from Bill Maher to fill-in-the-blank wishing for Kamala to be taken off Biden’s ticket) more likely to solidify my decision not to vote for Biden if it happens rather than to make me more amenable. She’s not his problem (the 70% dislike for the idea of his running agin). Were Kamala to voluntarily say she wants to be replaced for his second-run ticket, in order to be able to certainly have two terms open to herself in the future, and they put Warren in the slot… I’d go for that.
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There were over thirty people trying to be President in 2020, other than Donald J Trump.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/4/8/who-were-the-2020-us-democratic-presidential-candidates
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That was 2020. Now? Nothing.
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So you’ll vote for Trump or what’s-his-face from Florida? Now THAT would be a BIG improvement!
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You’ve thrown multiple aspects of logic straight out the window. It sounds like you’re coronating Biden, today or did before; perhaps Bill Maher is your sage. No, btw, I won’t vote for Trump or the other Florida man.
What I’m talking about is that we are supposed to have a democratic process (where the definition of democracy isn’t whoever has more money or the most corporations behind him or whatever perversions we’re in).
I can understand if you’re upset I countenanced Fandango’s wish to put in an upper limit (in addition to the lower limit we already have in the Constitution) for age of a president. I don’t see it happening, though.
In addition to logic, just the direct words I said don’t seem to have been what you “heard” here. Let me ask you: Do you think Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren are incompetent, at least for the role of VP or Prez?
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I wouldn’t mind IF there were a viable alternative. But there isn’t. There isn’t even a reasonable 3rd party candidate. Regardless, we’re in a bad situation and I don’t see a way out of it. We OUGHT to have real choices and we don’t. But age isn’t the problem. The real problem is that after Biden, there’s no one. Where there ought to be contenders, we have a void and that truly fills me with foreboding. We won’t live forever and unless we see a big generational turnover?
Apres moi, le deluge.
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Bernie Picks Biden Over Marianne
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Bernie Endorses Biden for
Re-election with ZERO Concessions
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Huge Update To Paid Sick Time Railroad Workers Story
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In a dream world, I’d edit my comment from yesterday to “… 76 … [with] a provision that the other person on the ticket [if younger] can [take an oath to] automatically become the president in the case the top of the ticket turns 77.”
It’s clearly arbitrary. Ronald Reagan wasn’t up to the task when he was 76 (but would’ve been relieved of the top duty for the last year of the term with the above wording). Yet, Bernie Sanders would be mentally competent right now.
Had Biden and Sanders, on the other hand, not been running last time… perhaps Elizabeth Warren could’ve gained sufficient traction without getting weird. I’m pretty sure I’d be happier with that (even while I like Bernie too).
All of this assumes some good faith, though, like anything is really up to the people (in our sense of real people). Instead, it is corporations and billionaires who rule the world behind the face, including the United States of America.
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CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHY I HAVE WHAT LOOKS LIKE A FILM OVER MY WEBSITE PAGE I AM TRYING TO FORMAT? Uggh!! Just when I thought I might have a handle on a simple build!! I wish I had the extra $500 bucks laying around to get it done for me!! SOS..blogger down!! 🤪
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A film? What kind of film? Take a screenshot and post it.
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Living in the UK, we are about to have a King crowned after 70 years of having a Queen. I have known nothing else all my life, so this is history in the making. The Monarchy is not what it was, and changes/reductions are afoot, but putting an age on Royalty Retirement is an interesting concept in contrast. Choices in the US of two old farts is a Catch 22 IMO. Politics (UK and US) needs new blood, but maybe to get that, some old stuff has to make way for it.
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Yes, make way for new blood, old farts.
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🙂
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I think they are both too old. There should be an age limit, retirement age just like regular people.
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Well I don’t think you should set a maximum (or a minimum, for that matter). The suitability of the candidate should be decided by the voters.
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Theoretically, you’re correct. But there’s something wrong with us as a whole.
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Yep. You’d think people would judge “too old” (or whatever) and vote accordingly, but it ain’t necessarily so.
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We only get to select from what the parties put before us — like Trump or Clinton🤮.
The parties aren’t in the Constitution, so we should be able to work this out. But the corruption is entrenched. The powers that be don’t want solutions to our problems or any solution to the electoral lack of addressing what people would really want.
I’m tired of voting for Republicans in both parties. I don’t vote for Republicans, but the Democrats don’t offer me Democrats for the most part.
Amending our Constitution is next to impossible by any means, so we won’t be changing anything about the age requirements on the lower or upper ends, which would be a move of desperation and among the last things upon which we’d need to focus were we to indeed get to a constitutional convention. Anyway, what you’re watching is a slow-motion burn out. As I think you know, we’re not the only ones.
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Based upon electing Trump for president, and maybe in 2024 for a second time, voters are stupid.
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Yeah but stupid or not, if you want to live in a democracy you have to listen to them. Otherwise you’re not in a democracy.
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Point taken. We just need to get rid of Twitter and Fox “News,” which are dumbing down of America.
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They got a real bashing here because of the case with Dimension Data(?). The voting machines just a few weks ago. But their rep wasn’t brilliant anyway, and… we know Murdoch.
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Dominion voting machines.
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yeah that was it
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https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/hillary-clinton-2016-donald-trump-214428/
So to take Bush down, Clinton’s team drew up a plan to pump Trump up. Shortly after her kickoff, top aides organized a strategy call, whose agenda included a memo to the Democratic National Committee: “This memo is intended to outline the strategy and goals a potential Hillary Clinton presidential campaign would have regarding the 2016 Republican presidential field,” it read.
“The variety of candidates is a positive here, and many of the lesser known can serve as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right. In this scenario, we don’t want to marginalize the more extreme candidates, but make them more ‘Pied Piper’ candidates who actually represent the mainstream of the Republican Party,” read the memo.
“Pied Piper candidates include, but aren’t limited to:
• Ted Cruz
• Donald Trump
• Ben Carson
We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to [take] them seriously.”
…
… Clinton aides sought to push the plan even further: An agenda item for top aides’ message planning meeting read, “How do we prevent Bush from bettering himself/how do we maximize Trump and others?”
~
But Clinton, at least, got the opponent her aides wanted, and a strategy to stick to.
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For a while now I have pondered whether there should be an age cap on ALL federal positions (including judgeships). Also, I have wondered if younger people might become more involved if there was a maximum voting age, say 85. I am not ageist exactly, but I have had to deal with aging relatives a lot, and I really think that, even for the most fit and with it, there comes a time to let the next generation take the lead. Two reasons: Usually people don’t recognize their own decline. Also, we need leaders who are living in today and looking toward tomorrow, not trying to recreate a past seen through the mists of memory.
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It’s going to seem weird that I’m posting this,
but there’s a reason:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/weekend_at_bernies
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I don’t think this is titled properly — but the
speaker addresses the idea of younger
people and motivation for voting.
Feinstein Forgets She Retired
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The reason I think the title isn’t quite fitting is that we don’t actually know Feinstein was ever told by her staff that they were putting out the messaging.
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Biden Censors Marianne on TikTok
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Pro-Marianne TikTok Accounts CENSORED
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https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a43623038/dianne-feinstein-retire-judiciary-committee/
It’s Not Sexist to Ask an 89-Year-Old Who Isn’t Showing Up to Work to Consider Retirement
Dianne Feinstein has served the public well in a trailblazing career, but she should learn from the case of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
PUBLISHED: APR 18, 2023
~~~~~~
It should be no surprise, then, that Republicans in the Senate blockaded an attempt from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday to temporarily replace Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee so that it could resume the work of getting Biden’s judges approved. This was per Feinstein’s request, and it is not one that screams “feasible!” here in our unfortunate reality.
They’re rolling out chin-stroking concerns about how Democrats are trying to run Feinstein out of town, as if she is currently in town, when we all know they want to keep as many judicial vacancies open as they can until another Republican wins a presidential election (if not, perhaps, the popular vote).
“I will not go along with Chuck Schumer’s plan to replace Senator Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee and pack the court with activist judges,” tweeted Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn. Is the implication that Feinstein was not voting for Biden’s picks? Don’t think about it too hard. The point is that they don’t want Biden appointing judges.
Susan Collins of Maine, meanwhile, rolled out the concern-trolling: “Dianne has been a trailblazing senator…
During the past two years, it has become crystal clear that there has been a concerted campaign to force her off the Judiciary Committee, and I will have no part in it.”
Maybe Collins is genuinely concerned, but she can also be found—without fail!—advancing the priorities of the Republican caucus as determined by Mitch McConnell. What was stranger to see was the statement from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, on Friday: ~
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/pelosi-defends-democratic-efforts-boost-far-right-candidates-gop-prima-rcna40706
… Nancy Pelosi… on Friday defended efforts to boost election deniers and other far-right Republican candidates that Democrats see as easier to defeat …
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https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/addybaird/nancy-pelosi-democratic-primary-challengers-2020
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https://theintercept.com/2020/03/04/super-tuesday-primaries-california-pelosi-shahid-buttar/
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Corporate Healthcare Lobbying Group Gives
Pelosi Top Award For Blocking Medicare For All
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Charlamagne [prods Biden]:
‘Debate Marianne and Kennedy’ –
The Kyle Kulinsky Show | (Meanwhile,
CNN is giving Donald Trump a Town Hall)
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Biden Set to Lose New Hampshire …
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Biden Rewards, with cushy job, Corporate
Stooge Who Screwed Progressives
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I totally agree.
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Our “founding fathers” didn’t even think eighteen-year-olds should vote, let alone women and people of color. There are states which have abridged the right to vote by not allowing people with mental challenges to vote — I don’t remember if it was based on IQ or mental illness. I remember a general vote to remove restriction in a particular state, which restriction had been put in place a few years prior, in something like 2008.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt26-1/ALDE_00001015/#:~:text=1%20Overview%20of%20Twenty-Sixth%20Amendment%2C%20Reduction%20of%20Voting%20Age,-Twenty-Sixth%20Amendment&text=Section%201%3A,State%20on%20account%20of%20age.
1 Overview of Twenty-Sixth Amendment, Reduction of Voting Age.
Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
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https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/03/21/thousands-lose-right-to-vote-under-incompetence-laws
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https://ballotpedia.org/Kansas_Voting_Disqualification_Amendment,_Constitutional_Amendment_Question_2_(2010)
~
On April 30, 2010, the measure was passed to the ballot by the House with a unanimous vote of 122-0.[12][13][3]
A 2/3rds vote in both chambers of the Kansas State Legislature is required to refer a constitutional amendment to the ballot. Kansas is one of 17 states that requires this process.
Similar measures
Voters in Maine and Washington have voted on similar measures in past years: Maine Repeal Mental Illness Provision, Question 5 (1997)
Maine Repeal of Mental Illness Voting Restrictions Amendment, Question 5 (2000)
Washington Deleting References to “Idiots,” HJR 4231 (1988)
Arkansas Voting and Elections, Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1 (2008)
Iowa Voting Exemptions, Constitutional Amendment Question (2008)
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Having an 81 year old husband, this is an interesting and relevant question.
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A whole bunch of our presidents were NEVER up to the job at ANY age. Among our many presidents, we’ve had some serious losers in the batch including at least one mass murderer. You’re worried about age? Let’s worry about quality and competence. Let’s worry about commitment to serving this country!
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This is so true.
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If getting too old were the issue for at least ONE president — but NO president has failed in office due to age. Reagan had Alzheimer’s and probably had it when he was elected. We had president’s die from being shot (three), pneumonia (1), probably being poisoned (1), stroke (1) — and NONE of these were “over age.” This doesn’t count the just plain bad presidents that we had.
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My main concern — in regard to who should be allowed to run or selected via primaries/caucuses preferably rather than anointed by crude (oil) or digital flow or stoppage or something — isn’t as to whether or not the person is going to die in office. Of course, whether one might be assassinated or threatened and so forth is certainly major, too, in the grand scheme of things. And if we knew someone was susceptible to pressure like that, we’d sure want to do something about it… some or most of us anyway. But we’re largely too naive and ruthless at the same time as a whole, and there is the added culture of shenanigans behind the scenes, and our justice system doesn’t seem very just. Meanwhile, though, the knowledge that a president could die or be taken from us does mean the VP is significant (if our setup works at all).
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What I don’t understand is WHY there aren’t more candidates fighting for the top spot. In all my years, I’ve never seen such an empty field. Where are they? I’m not against them. I’m actively FOR them — but who?
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It looks to me like the “generation Jones” and “gen-X” people are being “good boys and girls” and sticking with the program. My millennial children are, all but one, too young to run for president, although they’re not thinking about it either — and one moved to New Zealand to became a dual citizen fed up with our politics and systems.
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If I were younger, I’d leave. This isn’t my country anymore. That’s why it’s amazing that Biden is still working. I can’t even drum up the energy to consider moving.
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I have one who is in the system of US governance tangentially, in an economic capacity (but expert in computer data and programming as well). I have another who used to want to be a Supreme Court justice, and could conceivably eventually become a judge in a financial court setting (who is usually considered the tech expert in any office while he is the least familiar with tech of all my kids and isn’t primarily about tech or electronics). The youngest isn’t done with college yet. The oldest is in charge of computers per se (not writing or tweaking programming on the whole) and of functioning for a business robotics company (but not designing robots himself either); monetarily-minded also and has saved them a lot of money along with getting things more organized.
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It worries me that there are so few who seem interested in governing. What does it say about us that we’ve got a population so disinterested in public service?
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There will be more, but I’m sure a number of qualified candidates are probably reluctant to go up against the Democratic machine behind Biden.
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I think you may be overestimating GenX. I don’t think it’s fear of anything except maybe commitment to actually doing the work.
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I might have written this on someone else’s. Its time for some who has the energy.
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https://www.msnbc.com/american-voices/watch/new-camelot-adaptation-brings-show-into-21st-century-171846213650
“Camelot” Stars: Play Is Relevant To Problems With Democracy Now
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Very interesting question… hard to answer. I do think they are both too, ineffective. Trump was a train wreck and there is so much Biden has yet to do. I struggle with the idea of an age limit as some are active into their 90s but then other are old before their time with struggles as early as their 50s. Someone above mentioned retirement age, I think that sounds fair.
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I’ll be in the car… sipping on a soft drink, listening to Stevie Ray. 🙂
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Can I join you?
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Absolutely. 🙂
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