this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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So I know I'm having an existential crisis over the fact that people my age are leading parties in my country, but I personally think 30 something is an age you should be able to run for political office?
I mean, I personally don't think that the modern political landscape should be like the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
The US founding fathers decided that the president has to be at least 35, which to me implies that those individuals have had some political experience before becoming president. IMO roughly half the Senate should be under 35, and a good chunk of the House of Representatives should be under 29 considering Senate terms are 6-years long.
Not that you should have to be a "career politician" before becoming president, but it's fairly common to want to show some experience at leadership/politics.
I'm not really a fan, but look at "Mayor" Pete Buttigeg. One of the biggest attacks against him when he ran was "being president is not the same as being a mayor" (meanwhile we'll elect CEOs like their experience means anything, but that's a whole other problem).
Honestly, maybe having served as a congressman, senator, mayor or other form of public office, for at least 4 years; would be a rather sensible requirement for becoming president.
I think having a pipeline of official service would be good. Here is a concept for that:
After your first term is completed, you can elect to either run for a second term, or to be promoted to the higher level. If you get promoted, you can't have a second term on a lower level, so your career gets shorter if you move up the ladder quickly. However, if you fail to be elected to the higher post, you are barred from taking a 2nd term of your prior offices. This is a "are you sure people like you?" mechanism that theoretically would cull bad politicians from holding onto political power forever.
Mayor -> State legislature -> national congress -> president, something like that. Assuming one term for each posting, that would be 12 years of service before getting a chance at being president. 24 years of political presence if you took two full terms for each post. A politician can opt to have a glorious but short career, or to take a longer and more surer route that yields better odds of getting into the highest office.
End result: Actually good politician loses to a demagogue on the higher election, loses prior post
Theory is nice and all, but reality is that humans suck.