“In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire. We’ll have … mandatory mental-competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”
That’s how Nikki Haley kicked off her campaign for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.
“Permanent politician” is an obvious swipe at Biden. According to Politico (here), the “mental competency tests” remark is a swipe at both Trump and Biden.
But she didn’t specify Biden and Trump. She questioned the competency of all “politicians over 75,” and by implication everyone over 75. In her thinking, turning 75 is probable cause to investigate your mental competency.
Haley may have thought she was being cute; here’s a young politician taking a swipe at older politicians. But she didn’t just insult Biden and Trump; she also insulted senior citizens. An implication of what she said is, “Get out of the way, old folks, us younger folks are taking over.” This won’t go over well with senior voters.
She also insulted the intelligence of every voter in America, regardless of age, because this insinuates we’re not smart enough to figure out ourselves whether a candidate has the ability to do the job. And suppose a candidate flunks the mental competency tests, then what? Does that mean we can’t elect them? How does that not violate our voting rights? And if it doesn’t mean that, what’s the point of doing it?
C’mon, governor, are you serious? If you are, I think you should take an IQ test.
Related story: A CNN host reacting to Haley’s ageist remark caught flak for a sexist remark questioning whether Haley is “in her prime” (read story here).