I remember Ronald Reagan’s presidency. I remember turning 18 in time to vote in my first presidential election and not expecting him to win. That’s because I loved President Jimmy Carter, thought he could do no wrong. It was then I realized I was politically and socially unaware—shucks, young and naïve. So I grew up, graduated high school, headed off to college where for the next eight years I watched the news every morning and night.
I could not believe how Americans adored President Reagan. His shoe-black hair should have been the first sign something was amiss. At the time, Reagan was the oldest man to be elected U.S. president. He grew older with each passing year, yet always appearing rugged, robust, affable, dapper, distinguished with never a gray hair.
So when Donald Trump became the oldest person to be elected U.S. President (age wise Hillary Clinton would have shared the same distinction), I knew I had to watch him like a hawk—because I loved President Barack Obama like I loved Carter. They were and still are endearing to the hearts of, I’d say, half the nation … let’s face it, most of the world. Besides, we Democrats understand each other. I never pondered their motives and actions. They spoke with eloquence, humor, precision and most of all maintained a calm cool leadership sorely missed in this day and time. They also spoke to the American people only when necessary.
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
According to healthline.com, dementia affects “memory, thinking, language, judgment and behavior.” A person only has to have two of these brain impairments to be diagnosed. The online health resource goes on to state “Dementia is not a disease,” can be caused by assorted issues including illness and injury, and can be treatable and even reversed.
Dementia signs include:
Inability to cope with change
Short-term memory loss
Struggling to find the right word in conversation
Repeating tasks and stories
Confused sense of direction
Incapable of following a storyline on TV or when listening to others
Moodiness
Apathy and losing interest in lifelong hobbies and activities
Confusing people and places
Inability to complete daily routines.
As dementia progresses, other signs include personality changes, forgetfulness, inability to solve problems or express ideas and emotions. The condition escalates into poor judgment, frustration and memory loss of one’s past. In final decline, the person is unable to maintain body functions and to communicate.
The more we know
Now that we know dementia actually can begin at age 65, and not 80 even though half of people that age and older have dementia, I think it’s time Americans put an age limit on who can run for U.S. President. Sorry. I know. The older I get, the more I think hey, I’m still vital and have a lot of living to do. But … we all know there is something about the U.S. Presidency that ages the men elected. Compare head shots when first elected to when leaving Office: Carter, Bush I, Bush II, Clinton, everyone except Reagan, the Hollywood actor who perhaps knew some trade secrets to look younger or not old.
But seriously, the modern nuclear-weapons’ U.S. President IS the Leader of the World. Sorry Putin, but it’s the truth. Sorry Uncle Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. I think the new rule should be no one can run as U.S. President unless between the ages of 35 and 65. I will compromise with allowing the senior citizens among us to run for the Office at age 65 but not 66. We just cannot take the chance, knowing what we are just beginning to learn about neuroscience.
The latest brain science suggests we ought to keep ours active by reading, learning a new language, playing board games and cards, working puzzles, developing new hobbies, exercise and physical activity. Dick Van Dyke was asked to write a book about the secret to his longevity. He said it would be a short book with two words: Keep moving.
Does any of this sound like President Trump? Don’t all the other signs of dementia fit him like a glove? Like they fit Reagan when we had to just grin and bear it? Shortly after President Reagan left office for the last time, we were finally informed of his fateful diagnosis: Alzheimer’s disease, the long goodbye. By the time he was in his last years of a very long, incredible, monumental life, he had no idea he once was U.S. President.
I remember the Reagan presidency, everything he did and did not do, his repeated Hollywood stories and corny jokes, always asking Congress to win just one more for the Gipper, his blind eye to the AIDS epidemic, diminished speech capacity and loss of verbal eloquence, his protective wife sitting beside him in TV interviews and often finishing his sentences, the complete forgetfulness like when testifying in the Iran Contra trial. In court he repeated many times “I just don’t remember” to questions that should have rung a bell in importance, once-in-a-lifetime episodes and final decisions he made, unique and deadly serious. Reagan forgot all about it. That’s because he did not remember.
Well—as he typically began a comment—we believed him, never knowing the stark reality. His wife, family, advisors and friends knew. But no one was going to tell the American people.
We now have a U.S. President who speaks off script at political rallies, saying the same things over and over and over again. He makes fun of people crudely if not cruelly. He cusses with wild abandon. And he forgets his words and family history: oranges for origins, his father’s birthplace.
When an elderly person is showing signs of dementia along with the inability to live alone, families grapple with the decision to take over affairs and turn into the parent of their aged parent. In doing so, the law provides a competency hearing with a judge. The elderly is asked simple questions: what is the day of the week, what’s your age, who is president of the United States, what was the name of your spouse, where were you born? It’s about two dozen set questions that someone with dementia cannot fake knowing or even prepare for. The judge is interested in finding if the elderly is living in the past, which is common among senior citizens who may forget what they did yesterday but remember in great detail something that happened in the 1940s or ’50s when they were young. The judge also wants to determine if the elderly person is living in a fantasy world, thinking he’s Napoleon, George Washington or a movie star.
There’s nothing funny about dementia and Alzheimer’s. It’s frightening to the individual as well as the family. The loss of mental faculty is harder to deal with than loss of body function, the ability to get out of bed and dress and take care of yourself. In the beginning, it must be like a prison. Then thinking evolves into distrust and paranoia, child-like abandon, inappropriate behavior resulting in public nudity and thoughtless speech.
None of us know our current President’s state of mind. But the signs every day are evident and troubling. Americans deserve a leader who is (and wants to be) healthy physically, mentally and emotionally. We deserve a leader who wants to learn and do the job well. An age limitation for U.S. President may never come to pass. But given our nation’s precarious situation today in world affairs and the merging of new and astounding revelations about the once mysterious human brain, I could see a future generation who would change the constitutional age limit for president to restrict the elderly past a certain age. It’s just life and aging, not blatant discrimination. When it comes to the President of the U.S., Americans cannot take any chances, not anymore.