The case against age limits for politicians

A recent poll from YouGov/CBS News showed that 77% of respondents said that there should be a maximum age limit for elected officials, with the most popular cutoff being 70 years old. The idea of an age limit for the presidency or Congress isn’t entirely new; Jimmy Carter even endorsed the concept in 2020. But the prospect of a mandatory political retirement age seems newly relevant with protests over our “gerontocracy” filling news outlets seemingly daily.

These pieces inevitably focus on President Joe Biden (80), former President and current candidate Donald Trump (77),...