BarbinMD has posted on what he perceives to be the McCain campaign’s hypocrisy on the issue of his age: BarbinMD is shocked, shocked that the campaign objects to our mentioning McCain's age while they don't mind it if he himself does. But they are not being hypocritical; we are. First of all, this community has a rich history of not just mentioning McCain's age, but mocking it - his and Fred "Grandpa" Thompson's. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous. Even BarbinMD's first line, which describes McCain's campaign as "cantankerous" - the ageist equivalent of "uppity" - is mocking.
Second, mocking someone’s age violates the foundational progressive ethic of equality – age being as immutable as race, sex, ability and gender orientation.
McCain also has every right to mention or mock his own age, by the way, just like every discriminated-against group reserves the right to mock itself. That doesn’t give the privileged group, or a principled progressive opposition, the right to mock.
Mocking McCain’s age, by the way, is not the same as mocking Obama’s youth. Youth, like wealth, is a privileged attribute, in our society, anyway, and therefore mockable - even if doing so displays a certain lack of grace. One could also have legitimate concerns about a younger person’s lack of experience.
The expediency of mocking McCain’s age will surely come back to haunt us. Sooner or later we will field an important candidate with some miles on him or her, and we will get the same abuse right back – and it will be justified by our own prior behavior.
Moreover, there are lots of people who will be repelled at the spectacle of us mocking McCain's age. For young people to mock an elder’s age is particularly distasteful, the way it would be in our homes if grandchildren mocked their grandparents.
Does it occur to the mockers that the Boomers are all entering their "senior years?" That’s lots of elderly voters, folks. Keep trashing McCain for his age, and you’ll be sure to alienate them.
Have you forgotten that we’re on the Internet, where your most casual digs and witticisms are out there for all eternity for people to discover and use for their own purposes?
Every time we are ageist, we give McCain’s campaign, and future Republican campaigns, ammunition to use against us.
There’s plenty to mock John McCain about, including his statement that he doesn’t use a computer. Just don’t mock his age - or even refer to it, if you can't do so respectfully or at least neutrally.
If you need a refresher course on why age should be irrelevant to a candidate's fitness, check out http://www.grannyd.com/
Update: Thanks to all who commented - this is my most-commented piece! Please note that:
- I am not saying not to vote for McCain based solely on his age (although personally I find that viewpoint discriminatory). I am just saying don't mock him because of his age.
- It may even be legitimate to discuss whether McCain's age and health history could be an impediment to his service. I just think it's a risky tactic, and also hard to do without slipping into meanness and mockery.
- I think it's totally valid to judge McCain's behaviors, errors, etc. I would refrain from linking them to his age.
- many of you are making the mistake of equating intelligence or "quickness" with wisdom and effective decision-making. That is understandable after 8 years of a president who has had neither, and the ageism rampant in our culture. But they are not the same. Studies have shown that many older people make slower, but better, decisions and are better handling crises than young people. And experience does count for something, after all. Obviously, individuals vary - and although it should be obvious, I'm not saying any of this as an endorsement of McCain.
btw, while we focus on the easy shot - his age - we risk missing the big picture. Here it is: McCain's entire military "heroic" career a potential fraud. This is the story we should be spreading coast to coast.
Hill
Hillary Rettig is author of The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the world Without Losing Your Way (Lantern Books, 2006). Click here for more info/downloads, and click here for SusanG's Daily Kos review of the book.