Nikki Haley Wants to Test Old Candidates and Mississippi Wants an All-White Empire
New Study Gets Anti-Maskers Giddy, Matt Gaetz Promotes China Propaganda, Another Republican Lies on Resume, and More
So much to discuss this week. Let’s jump right in.
Nikki Haley calls for competency tests for politicians over 75 during campaign launch (Politico)
SUMMARY: “Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Wednesday highlighted the need for generational change and called for mandatory competency tests for politicians older than 75 during a speech launching her 2024 presidential campaign.
“In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire,” said Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador during Donald Trump’s presidency. “We’ll have term limits for Congress. And mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”
The remarks are an undeniable strike against her only declared opponent, 76-year-old Trump, as well as President Joe Biden, who at 80 is the oldest person to hold the office.
Haley, 51, repeatedly talked about leading America into the 21st century.
MY TAKE: I certainly understand the appeal of this proposal to some people. They look at Trump, Biden, Sanders, and Feinstein and worry that our country is in the hands of doddering oldsters lacking in cognitive reasoning. This is partially based on real concerns about the mental challenges of aging (which at 75 I know all about), but it also partially feeds off America’s cultural prejudice against the aged.
It’s hard to claim bias when we elect the gray-haired (or dyed hair) brigade hoping for the wisdom of age and experience. Yet, at the same time, our attitude toward the aging is to portray them as sexless, powerless, passionless, clueless—just altogether less. We see them as cute or curmudgeonly or just there, like over-stuffed chairs with crocheted doilies on each arm.
What makes Haley’s proposal so Logan’s Run/Wild in the Streets heinous is that it targets people of an arbitrarily chosen age. (Should those movie references be a test of pop culture IQ?) If cognitive ability is so important, why not test all candidates? Then again, why not test candidates for their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution? Or American history? Or critical thinking?
For example, Haley said, “Joe and Kamala even say America is racist. Nothing could be further from the truth.” What Biden and Harris have said is that systemic racism exists in America, which is different from “America is racist.” There are enough facts, studies, and experts to confirm this (“25 simple charts to show friends and family who aren't convinced racism is still a problem in America” Business Insider; “Studies find evidence of systemic racial discrimination across multiple domains in the United States” Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies). Saying otherwise means Haley is either lying or doesn’t understand how facts work which would, under her own desire for cognitive reasoning in candidates, disqualify her as a candidate.
She then said, “And I don’t believe in glass ceilings, either. I believe in creating a country where anyone can do anything and achieve their own American dream.” Does she mean that glass ceilings don’t exist, like the Loch Ness monster? That’s what “either” suggests. Or is she saying they do exist but she believes they shouldn’t and she will create a country where they don’t exist? If the U.S. isn’t racist then does she imply it’s also not sexist, so there is no glass ceiling? In which case, she doesn’t have to “create” a country where anyone can do anything and achieve their own American dream because that country already exists.
Huh? Should we have a test that measures the ability to communicate clearly?
Or is the election process itself the test in which we judge the candidates’ abilities, intelligence, ethics, and so forth? Clearly, we haven’t perfected that yet because we still elect people like George Santos (34), Marjorie Taylor Greene (48), Ron DeSantis (44), Matt Gaetz (40), and other proven hucksters—but young hucksters. In the meantime, if you don’t want someone because they’re old, then don’t vote them into office. But if you want to start giving tests, then test everyone on everything.