Ageism unfairly hurts McCain
Americans, particularly youth, dismiss candidate as out of touch, obsolete
By: Paul Bowers
Posted: 9/29/08 - Pleading the first
John McCain, senator and presidential candidate, is 72 years old. Think about this for a moment.
If your first response is "He's too old to run the country," then you're in the same category as 26 percent of people in the 18 to 29 age group, according to a July 9 Gallup poll.
The results of the poll are not shocking. Start a conversation about the election with a group of college students, and the odds favor McCain's age coming up.
But what is the real issue here?
Some will say that he's liable to keel over before finishing his term. And while the same doctors who have kept Vice President Dick Cheney alive for eight years can probably take care of McCain, this might be a legitimate concern.
However, it goes both ways. I don't mean to sound cold, but what is the life expectancy of a black president in a country where the Ku Klux Klan still operates?
Others are quick to point out that McCain will only act in the interest of his generation. But to make this accusation is to call his entire character into question. Did Kennedy slant his policies in favor of Catholics? Did Clinton push for a relaxation of workplace harassment standards?
In the same vein, some students say they will not vote for McCain because he will focus on social security and retirement issues, problems that they say are not relevant to our age group. But as shocking as it may sound, we'll be old one day, too.
The rationale for all these arguments springs from an "us vs. them" mentality wherein the generations of our parents and their parents before them are seen as threats to "us" - the ever-enlightened 18- to 29-year-olds.
I remember scoffing when a professor introduced me to the idea of ageism, or prejudice against an age group. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw it in my own life.
Far from respectful reverence for our elders, we live in a culture that implicitly believes people can reach obsolescence. Take a close look at your parents and their friends, and I guarantee you will find a few tragic Willy Loman characters, floundering to maintain dignity and relevance.
I say all this not to promote McCain as our next president - frankly, he was not even my pick for the Republican nomination. McCain is simply the most visible object of our scorn and butt of our jokes.
While this country still deals with shameful legacies of racial and religious bigotry, we must not ignore the fact that another group is being misrepresented.
Think of the people in your life over age 60. Do you listen when they voice their concerns, or do you roll your eyes and condescend?
People of European descent could learn a few things from the great thinkers of the Middle East. Christians could stand to study the wisdom of the Hindus. And young people would do well to hear their grandparents out.