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Perspective: Is this the best we can do?

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At the time of this recording, the GOP presidential candidate race had tightened. The field that started with fourteen diverse conservative candidates has been whittled down to the final two. After the Iowa caucus, Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign after a second-place finish. It’s now a head-to-head competition between the former President Donald J. Trump and his former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley.

 

If the predictions of political pundits and analyst hold true, Governor Haley has an uphill battle ahead of her. If she loses, we’ll have a rematch of the 2020 election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The last Presidential election ended with Donald Trump losing by more than seven million votes and the birth of the “Big Lie” narrative that the election was stolen by way of election fraud. This narrative gave rise to the historic events of January 6th, 2021. I’m concerned this presidential election will offer voters two men advanced in age. Trump would be 78 at the time of inauguration and Biden would be 82.

 

While I have a preference on who should be president, that’s not the focus of this piece. My indictment is on the whole political landscape in the United States. This is best the Democrats and Republicans can offer? Senior citizens? For perspective, the president of Mexico is 70 and the Prime Minister of Canada is 52. No, I’m not an ageist, just posing the question why aren’t younger politicians being mentored and prepared for leadership? One of the dangers of American politics is the number of House and Senate members who are “long in the teeth.” There comes a time when the torch has to be passed, when new, younger, open-minded leadership is empowered to lead this country into the next century. That time is now!

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., George Joseph “Joe” Mitchell was raised in DeKalb, where he is the bi-vocational co-pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.