Fern: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” appeared in almost every poetry anthology. I read it first in high school. Again in college. You?
Joe: Sure. I was also an English major.
Fern: Were you as taken with the poem as I was?
Joe: We were both taken with it. We were young! Filled with angst! But did you know that T. S. Eliot was twenty-two, when he wrote that poem?
Fern: I did not. People see it as the wisdom of someone old: "I have heard the mermaids singing each to each/ I do not think that they will sing to me.” That’s the lament of someone feeling inadequate, useless, undesired.
Joe: Are we doing an exegesis of a poem? Is this what you want to talk about today?
Fern: I want to talk about age and politics. You’ve got to admit the situation is lamentable.
Joe: What, aging or politics?
Fern: Diane Feinstein died this week. At ninety, she was the longest serving woman senator with a long list of progressive accomplishments both for the environment, marriage equality and gun violence. She also helped create the Amber Alert. But her last, most news-worthy year in congress eclipsed it all. Because of her advanced age, Feinstein did not seem competent to serve.
So what is the right age to say enough? To get out?
In retrospect, Ruth Bader Ginsberg should have retired before the end of Obama’s term. He was illegitimately deprived of choosing the next justice.
Joe: Well Mitch McConnell didn’t seem too old to work that one out.
Fern: He was devious. And that was wrong. Everyone knew it was wrong.
Joe: But did age play a role there? You don’t have to be old to be devious. Or wrong. Iowa’s own, Chuck Grassley is already ninety but seems to be playing with the full deck. Ninety!!
Fern: Actually, Grumpy Grassley always seemed old to me. A thrifty farmer, recalling the days when a pack of gum was only a nickel.
Joe: I remember when a pack of gum was only a nickel.
Fern: I recall being sent to the store to buy my father cigarettes. Marlboros for 28 cents a pack. At eight years old, I walked three blocks home by myself, holding a pack of cigarettes and matches. The 1950’s may have been a repressive time for women and gays and people of color, but children were pretty much free-range.
Joe: How about Ronald Reagan? Even though his policies did some damage, he’s practically canonized today.
Reagan crushed any attack about his age with charm and humor. In the debate with Mondale he turned to the television audience (he was an actor, after all) and said: “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
Fern: Good line. But Reagan should not have run for a second term.While Alzheimer’s was not diagnosed until he was out of office, there were already signs. He forgot things, stumbled in his speech, fell asleep. Lots of people thought he was too old to run for a second presidential term.
Joe: And you feel this about Joe Biden?
Fern: Well, I feel it about Donald Trump as well. It’s just that Trump’s advanced age is only one in a dozen or so reasons that he should not run.
But smart and experienced as Joe Biden is, I still would have advised him not to run. More to the point, I would have advised Biden not to even talk about running in ’24. Nada. Zilch. Keep it buttoned up, Joe. Let the Republicans scramble in the muck, yelling and demeaning each other. Stay out of the fray.
“I’m busy running the country right now. That’s my only focus, ” he should have said. Why didn’t he? Well, too late now.
Joe: Why didn’t Joe Biden just ask you?
Fern: Or why didn’t Jill Biden tell him that? She could have said: “Honey, you’ve done a great job as interim president. Now let’s go to the beach in Delaware and train the dogs.”
Joe: Maybe she did say something and he didn’t take her advice. I’ve heard some husbands do that. Sometimes.
Fern: And what about Nancy Pelosi? Gotta love an eighty year old woman in heels who can handle a gavel. She’ll never top her performance sitting behind Trump and quietly clapping like she’s at a grandchild’s dance recital. Or tearing up her copy of his State of the Union.
Joe: That’s kind of my point. An eighty-year-old woman can handle a gavel. In some cases, age matures and seasons decision making.
Fern: More often, old age diminishes.
Joe: But politicians, if they still have their wits about them, don’t necessarily age out. Some of them improve, even. Which is why the term “elder statesman” has such cache.
Fern: I disagree. I think Eliot got it right in another famous poem, The Wasteland. Recall the refrain? “Hurry up, please, it’s time….”
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Iowa and California
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Political Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Macy Spensley, The Creative Midwesterner, Davenport/Des Moines
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
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Great discussion!!! I think the subject of when to age out is highly dependent on the person, their genes, their openness. I agree Joe shouldn’t be running. I agree RUmp is a walking, living nightmare on so many fronts, I would run out of room to list them. But… what do we do??? For me, I’m going to keep voting Blue. And hope Biden makes it another 4 years. {clenched teeth emoji}
I hope Diane Feinstein will be remembered for all she did and not just her decline in the last year, which in the long run did not imperil much. Alas, I fear Ruth Bader Ginsberg will be remembered for her very bad choice, which will have dire consequences for many years to come.
Thanks so much for another great discussion.